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Lauer to Laura Bush: Is It 'Painful' to Be in New Orleans, Since So Much Blame Is Laid At Your Husband's Feet? Today co-anchor Matt Lauer traveled to New Orleans, on Friday, to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and interviewed the likes of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, former FEMA Director Mike Brown, current Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, but saved any sort of direct shots at George W. Bush for his interview with Laura Bush.

An e-mail appeal was sent this morning from the campaign office of Congressman Bobby Jindal (R-Kenner), with this title, “We must raise $21,201 in 48 hours!” Is Jindal in financial trouble? No, he has more money in his account than any other Louisiana congressman, a pretty impressive situation for such a newcomer. Does Jindal have serious opposition in his congressional re-election campaign to warrant concern? No, no reputable candidate one would be foolish enough to run against such a popular congressman. The purpose of the e-mail appeal is to excite supporters to help the congressman “reach our goal.” Jindal wants...

A congressional committee wants to know why many nursing home residents were left behind before Hurricane Katrina hit, and Louisiana's governor was called upon to answer the committee's questions this morning. Gov. Kathleen Blanco finished her testimony before the committee just before noon. According to the state's emergency plan, the Department of Transportation and Development was responsible for the evacuation of the state's most vulnerable residents, like nursing homes and hospital patients. At least 140 patients at New Orleans area hospitals and nursing homes died during the storm and its aftermath. On Capitol Hill today, two senators told Blanco they...

**EXCLUSIVE** On the heels of the recall effort against Governor Kathleen Blanco, a memo has been issued to the heads of all state agencies, THE DEAD PELICAN has learned. The memo, issued today, states that "No employee in the classified service and no member of the Commission shall take active part in an effort to recall from office an elected public official, or seek, solicit or attempt to coerce any person including any employee in the classified service and any member of the Commission into participating in any such effort or signing a recall petition except that nothing contained herein...

NEW ORLEANS -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco complained on Thursday that Louisiana is not getting its fair share of hurricane aid from the federal government. Blanco said that Louisiana suffered 70 percent of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina but that it is not getting an equivalent amount in aid. "We are all American citizens, we cannot allow ourselves to be treated like second-class citizens," the governor said during an update on rebuilding to the New Orleans city council. Sam Jones, Blanco's deputy director of community programs, pointed out that Louisiana got only $6.2 billion out of $11.5 billion in Community...

Some members of the governor's staff will return from the three-day holiday on Tuesday to newly renovated offices at the State Capitol. Shortly after the two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided to renovate some of her staff's offices. At the time of her decision, Blanco also was hinting at deep budget cuts to state programs and the possibility of laying off 20 percent of the state workforce. The project cost $564,838. The newly refurbished office space on the sixth floor of the State Capitol includes hookups and mounts for two flat screen televisions, Swedish granite countertops, walnut paneling and frosted...

BATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 22 - She is struggling to rebuild a shattered state. But along the way, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana is also working to repair a wounded reputation - her own. She has been mocked as weepy and indecisive by radio talk show hosts who deride her as "momma governor." She has feuded with the White House, which did not invite her to a recent announcement on levee protection. She has been criticized on Capitol Hill by Republicans as having made a "dysfunctional" response to Hurricane Katrina. And through it all, Ms. Blanco, a 63-year-old Democrat,...

A second lawsuit was filed Tuesday trying to overturn Gov. Kathleen Blanco's decision to postpone New Orleans' scheduled 2006 mayoral and City Council elections indefinitely. The first suit was filed Friday in state court in Baton Rouge. The second, filed in federal court by lawyer Justin Asher Zitler, says that Blanco's decision was "unconstitutional . . . arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable." It asks that the originally scheduled Feb. 4 primary and March 4 runoff elections be held no later than March 4 and March 25, respectively, meaning the winners could be inaugurated on schedule May 1, as provided in the...

Governor Blanco had a three-word response to a stinging designation she's received in a major national news magazine. Questioned by reporters at the capitol today, blanco told them, "Watch my results" and then she walked off. Time magazine has declared Blanco one of the three worst governors in the nation. The magazine quotes pollster Bernie Pinsonat who describes Blanco as appearing "dazed and confused" after Hurricane Katrina. Time hits blanco for slowness in calling a special legislative session, and slowness in appointing a recovery commission. At the bottom with Blanco is Ohio governor Bob Taft and Mark Sanford of South...

On Wednesday the official death toll from Katrina jumped to 474. More than 400 of those bodies are now being held for autopsy at two locations in the Baton Rouge area. All those bodies are now producing a brand new public relations nightmare for state officials. This time, it involves the hiring of the world's largest funeral corporation to handle the job of recovering the dead. But it's a company we've learned has a tainted history of legal troubles. According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, Kenyon International has been in charge of recovering and handling Hurricane Katrina's dead...

Just before midnight on August 26, three days before Katrina was to make landfall, Kathleen Blanco received a phone call from George Bush. The president had been through a series of briefings from Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and knew the potential dangers to New Orleans and the surrounding area from a storm the size of Katrina. Now he was attempting to convince the Governor of Louisiana that she needed to take immediate action. His pleas fell on deaf ears. It seemed that the Governor was more concerned with the legalities of accepting federal assistance, and the appearance that...

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA on Tuesday, complaining the agency is moving too slowly in recovering the bodies of those killed by Hurricane Katrina. The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said at state police headquarters in Baton Rouge. She said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has not signed a contract with the company hired to handle the removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services. Calls to a FEMA spokesman in New Orleans and the Homeland Security Department in Washington were not immediately returned.

THE US military is to bar journalists and photographers from documenting the recovery of bodies left on the streets of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. Lieutenant-General Russel Honore, the commander of the relief operation, said on Friday that while the military had allowed reporters covering the catastrophe free rein, it was now slamming the door shut out of respect for the possibly thousands of victims and their families. "We've had total access to everything we've done — the good, the bad and the ugly — but that operation (the recovery of corpses) will be conducted with dignity and respect for...

Just heard on FOX that Blanco refused to allow supplies to be brought to the stadium, "Because they wanted all those people to leave, and they didn't want to create a magnet to bring others there, by bringing in food and water!"""

Governor Blanco just said on Fox News Channel that Mayor Nagin does not have the authority to order evacuation of New Orleans, that the authority rests with her....and she doesn't have evidence that it is unsafe!