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The soul of the city is coming off the practice field and headed toward the showers. They are a motley group, undrafted guys and late-round fliers, players cast off from other teams. Brees landed in town after an injury convinced the Chargers that his best days were behind him. "When we came here," he has said, "I was in the process of rebuilding, as well." Quarterback Drew Brees and the Saints' potent offense have produced a 13-0 record heading into their home game Saturday night against Dallas. Running back Mike Bell was out of football. So was cornerback Mike McKenzie,...

Whitney Houston’s new CD, “I Look to You,” got the star treatment tonight. Music mogul Clive Davis played nine tracks from the album, due Sept. 1, for an A-list audience at Jazz at Lincoln Center. When he was done, Houston walked out and got a standing ovation and cheers. She deserved it, too. The nine songs — there will be 11 altogether — are solid tracks, with several tipped as potential hit singles. ~~~ But it was Whitney’s night. She looked stunning and a little stunned as the audience warmly embraced her and welcomed the new songs. Besides the Alicia...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HP0JDB77yY

"Jon & Kate Plus 8" will be on hiatus until August, the L.A. Times has just reported. Thank God! Was anyone else bored to tears watching the repetitive and monotonous statements about their divorce made by Jon and Kate Gosselin on last night's show? Kate tried to come off as being sad, vulnerable, suffering, but still strong, and Jon pretended that he was finally doing the manly thing by standing up to his harpy wife. Both of them kept repeating how much they were thinking about their kids, even divorcing for their kids. Really? Because if they had been thinking...

This just in: The College World Series is better when LSU wins. No offense to the seven other teams — OK, six as Cal State Fullerton drives to the airport — here in Omaha. We love you all. But there's no sense in denying it: LSU is Omaha's team (with apologies to UNO and Trev Alberts). Nothing against Arkansas, either. The “Omahogs'' were loud and proud and everywhere you looked. If we can't have gumbo for two weeks, pulled pork is a fine caloric substitute. The Omahogs look like they can throw a party, too. But let's not kid ourselves....

An Orleans Parish jury Wednesday convicted a 24-year-old man of attempted first-degree murder for repeatedly shooting, cutting and threatening to kill a tourist he lured to an abandoned apartment in the Iberville public housing development in 2007. ~snip~ His sister, Marijuana Rayfield, also testified for the defense that her brother couldn't have been involved in the crime that morning.

WASHINGTON -- The 111th Congress was sworn into office Tuesday, including Anh "Joseph" Cao of New Orleans, who took the oath on the House floor to become the first Vietnamese-American member of Congress. snip Moments earlier, Pelosi asked the members to thank their families, and Cao, 41, could be seen tilting his head back and gazing up to scan the House gallery to find his wife, Hieu "Kate" Hoang, like him a refugee from Vietnam, and his elderly parents who, as Saigon was about to fall to the Communists in 1975, sent the 8-year-old Cao, his brother and a sister...

WASHINGTON -- Anh "Joseph" Cao beat long odds when he defeated Rep. William Jefferson to win a seat in Congress. His bid to join the Congressional Black Caucus might be even more difficult. -snip-Since its founding in 1971 by 13 black members of Congress, the caucus has never had a member who was not African-American. And the caucus has had only one Republican member -- Gary Franks, a former representative from Connecticut -- and that ended in acrimony. Another former black Republican in Congress, J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, chose not to join the caucus.-snip-"If the purpose of the caucus is...

Audio of a message left with a repo company; she's mad that her car is being repossessed, and tells the company that she "ain't rich, but one day, this year, we will be, because of Barack Obama." She then hangs up. Listen here

Many liberals are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving once again, thankful they finally took back their country when their candidate won the presidential election. To demonstrate their gratitude they were even willing to eat turkey, although quite a few are vegetarian. But wouldn't you know, former Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin (Alaska) had to ruin the feast with reality. As she conducted the mock ritual of "pardoning" a turkey for Thanksgiving in front of the television cameras, real working class folks in the background did their job of getting fresh turkeys to the American public. The delicate folks at...

The Buraq (Arabic: البُراق al-buraaq, meaning lightning, also means the element boron; Turkish: Burak), is according to Islamic tradition a creature from the heavens that carried Muhammad from earth to heaven and back during the Isra and Miraj (Night Journey). An excerpt from a Sahih Muslim hadith describes a buraq: “I was brought by the Buraq, which is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place its hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg5GWI7UKtQ Bobby Jindal is a true American success story.

Gov. Bobby Jindal touted Louisiana's hurricane recovery efforts and tossed aside rumors he could be a possible running mate for Republican presidential contender John McCain, when he appeared Monday on NBC's "Tonight Show."

More Republicans than Democrats and more white voters than black voters went to the polls on Oct. 20 for the statewide Louisiana election that made Bobby Jindal the governor-elect, according to information released by the secretary of state Wednesday.Orleans had the lowest voter turnout of any parish, at 27.5 percent, a figure based on the number of people who voted among those registered to vote.

The conditions were unbearable. Inside the hospital it was pitch black, with odors, smell, human waste everywhere. It was very rancid. You would take a breath in and it would burn the back of your throat. The patients were very sick. That’s when we had to go from triage to reverse triage because we came to realize if patients aren’t being evacuated, [we had to deal with what we had]. Basically it was a general consensus that we’re not going to be able to save everybody. We hope that we can, but we realize everybody may not make it out.

At the camp for sick children where he worked as a counselor, Jeremy Davis was known for his extraordinary empathy, his ability to intuit the kind of support his charges might need. In the days before he died, his concern for a brother who suffers from sickle cell anemia seemed to warp and grow inside his head. He put on his brother's clothes, trying to inhabit his sibling's world and take the mantle of his pain. He could not sleep or eat and began disappearing on rambling walks. His family took him to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, initiating...

David Hasselhoff's visitation rights to see his children have been suspended. A Los Angeles judge temporarily barred the former 'Baywatch' star from visiting daughters Taylor-Ann and Hayley on Monday (07.05.07), following the emergence of a videotape showing him drunk in Taylor-Ann's presence. Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas said: "This videotape changes the landscape, it just does." Hasselhoff - a recovering alcoholic - was not present at the hearing, but ex-wife Pamela Bach attended. The sanction will remain in place until May 21, when another child custody hearing has been set.

The average income in New Orleans scooted a bit higher this month when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie dropped $3.5 million on a French Quarter mansion. The Hollywood couple, who occupy the upper strata of celebrity, bought a three-story, 7,400-square-foot home in the lower French Quarter this month and have enrolled their oldest child at a local school. The house they selected -- their fourth, according to a tabloid that posted the story on its Web site this week -- is a gray-green, balconied affair near the riverfront, complete with a two-car garage, a detached guest house and a rear...

caption: Barry Maturana hangs his artwork up Saturday on the fence behind St. Joseph's Cathedral in Jackson Square. Maturana tries to move on with his life and show his pride in the city of New Orleans by cleaning up the area around his home and continuing to display his work. NEW ORLEANS -- On the black wrought-iron fence behind St. Louis Cathedral, Barry Maturana hung his $400 paintings. Military choppers buzzed back and forth over the French Quarter. Fires raged in the Sax Fifth Avenue store on Canal Street and an industrial district across the river. Anyone who hadn't...

Everybody's heard them: Dad's favorite sayings, phrases, words of wisdom, philosophies, etc. They're funny, wise, annoying, and sometimes just plain goofy, but they've stuck with us through the years, and remind us of the man who taught us how to be adults. So what's your favorite "dadism"? Here's a few of mine:Just do it. It'll keep your mom happy.Keep your eye on the ball.Always be willing to learn. No one can ever take knowledge away from you.THE BRAKE'S ON THE LEFT!!!!