Free Republic

The city will require businesses seeking to take advantage of millions of dollars in tax incentives and grants following Hurricane Katrina to use as many local and minority-owned firms as possible, Mayor Ray Nagin announced Monday. Nagin signed an executive order requiring large businesses seeking tax breaks and other incentives to use 50 percent local businesses and 35 percent women- or minority-controlled businesses whenever possible. Similar requirements have been in place for government contracts, but the order expands the requirement to businesses asking for assistance promised by various federal hurricane recovery programs. "We just want to make sure we don't...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Entertainer Bill Cosby urged New Orleans' black population on Saturday to cleanse itself of a culture of crime as it rebuilds from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina last year. Cosby, whose criticism of some aspects of modern African-American culture has stirred controversy in recent years, told a rally headed by black leaders that the city needed to look at the "wound" it had before Katrina struck. "It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound," Cosby told the rally of about 2,000 people in front of the city's convention center.