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(full article title: Melania and Donald swing by Texas and Louisiana and visit the thousands made homeless by Hurricane Harvey... and the delighted children can't get enough of their President!) President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew to Houston on Saturday morning for their second trip to Texas since Hurricane Harvey ravaged the state. Their first stop was the NRG Stadium in Houston, where thousands are evacuating after being forced out of their homes by the devastating floods brought by Harvey earlier in the week. Together they gave out Red Cross meal boxes, shook hands and took selfies with...

Modern Family star Sofia Vergara has been locked in a bitter custody dispute with Nick Loeb over frozen embryos she and her former fiancé had made when they were together for years, but she recently picked up a major legal victory in the public battle. Since the two split up, Loeb has aggressively tried to acquire custody of the frozen embryos. In his latest legal bid to obtain legal custody, Loeb filed an unusual right-to-live lawsuit against Vergara in Louisiana, the only state where frozen embryos have legal rights. He named the two embryos “Emma” and “Isabella” in court documents,...

Captain Josh Miller parked his charter boat and exchanged it for his flat bottom and headed out over night with his buddy Andre.This is much watch TV. These Cajuns are making a huge difference in Texas!

Roughly 2.33 million b/d of Texas refining capacity remained down due to shutdowns, but with refiners also cutting rates that figure is likely much higher. If those cutting runs are at 50% of capacity, that would put the total downed capacity at 3.36 million b/d (18% of the US total). Vessel traffic into and out of the US Gulf Coast has largely been closed, restricting oil and refined products imports and exports. The US Coast Guard set port condition Zulu for Louisiana port Lake Charles and Texas ports Beaumont, Nederland, Orange, Port Arthur, Port Neches, Sabine and Sabine Bar. The...

Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day,” Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-LA) said President Donald Trump and the federal government response to the impact of Hurricane Harvey on his state has been “excellent.” Edwards said, “Well, first of all, let me tell you the federal government has been excellent. The president has called twice. He signed the declaration we requested within a few hours of our making the request on Sunday evening. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Duke has been wonderful and FEMA administrator Brock has been great as well.” He added,”What we need right now is really mother nature to cooperate...

Three members of the Cajun Navy who went to the Houston area Monday morning to rescue stranded residents pulled a lifeless elderly woman from floodwaters and resuscitated her. Joshua Lincoln of Madisonville, Ricky Berrigan of Lacombe and Donnie Davenport of Pearl River were motoring their flatboat northeast of Houston when they came across 73-year-old Wilma Ellis, floating face down. "I thought it was a trash bag," Lincoln said. "She was wearing a black shirt. "The lady must have been crossing in some current. She floated right to the boat. We jumped out and got her and gave her compressions right...

One danger evacuees and first responders are dealing with along with the flooding in Houston is fire ants. Islands of fire ants! CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca tweeted a photo from Houston as the ants formed a protective island in the high water. According to Orkin.com, fire ants can exist in colonies of up to 250,000 workers and will sting intruders repeatedly. Fire ants feed on animal or vegetable sources of food according to the web site. No reports yet of anyone getting bitten by fire ants. Tropical Storm Harvey continues to head back toward the Gulf of Mexico at...

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - One year after the Cajun Navy fleet deployed to pluck stranded families from the flood waters that overwhelmed southeast Louisiana, the volunteer rescuers have mobilized again to help in the Houston area after heavy flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey. A second wave of volunteers with the group gathered in Baton Rouge on Monday to head to the Houston area to provide additional support.

Members of the Cajun Navy volunteer groups are stepping up to assist flood-stricken residents, as people bound for Texas post on Facebook that help is on the way. Although unofficial and organized through several online groups, the Cajun Navy is comprised of grassroots volunteers who came to be known by a collective name after the Louisiana Flood of 2016 prompted hundreds of leisure boat owners to band together and perform search and rescue operations.

NEW ORLEANS — With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops. At a Walgreen’s drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers. When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, “86! 86!” — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered.

<p>SHREVEPORT, La. — Surveillance video catches a woman stashing 18 liquor bottles in her purse, pants and bra.</p> <p>Police in Shreveport, La., said the woman paid for one bottle of booze, then shoplifted the rest.</p> <p>The video shows her casually walking out of the store where she appears to smile and laugh.</p>

Global warming is making the oceans hotter, fueling the intensity and flooding potential of storms like Harvey, climate scientists said as the hurricane approached. Driven by higher-than-average temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey quickly intensified Thursday and is likely to reach Category 3 hurricane status before it hits the Texas Coast. The average temperature for most of the Gulf was 86 degrees, said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. “That makes it almost the hottest spot on the planet” for sea surface temperatures, Trenberth said. “It’s an area that’s ripe...

The National Hurricane Center has issued an advisory instructing Texas residents along the Gulf of Mexico coast to "rush" their storm preparations as Hurricane Harvey "rapidly" intensifies. All preparations for residents along the middle Texas coast should be completed today, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm is expected to make landfall around 1 a.m. Saturday. The coastal city of Corpus Christi has so far not implemented mandatory evacuations, but Mayor Joe McComb called for people to leave in the "strongest possible terms."

Potentially catastrophic Hurricane Harvey approaching Texas Gulf Coast. Mash image to find lots of satellite imagery linksPublic AdvisoriesNHC DiscussionsNHC Local Hurricane Statements Corpus ChristiNHC Local Hurricane Statements GalvestonBuoy Data near Harvey

The National Hurricane Center was warning that since Harvey was going to be a slow moving system, rainfall may be the greatest threat:

Another day, yet another statue of a military hero is reportedly under fire. This figure astride a horse was vandalized with the spray-painted words "Tear It Down." Who was this historical figure? General Lee? Stonewall Jackson? Nathan Bedford Forrest? No, this was a figure who hails from the north. Of France: The phrase "Tear it Down" was hastily sprayed in black paint across the base of the golden Joan of Arc statue on Decatur Street in the French Quarter sometime earlier this week. It has since been removed, with only the vaguest traces of the paint remaining. The "Tear it...

White supremacist Richard Spencer isn't welcome on LSU's campus following violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. “We will take the necessary precautions to ensure that our campus is safe from violence, that our students and faculty are safe from people trying to stir up troubles,” LSU President F. King Alexander told The Advocate. Spencer’s people have been making calls to LSU officials trying to arrange a visit to Baton Rouge, Alexander said. “He’s not welcome,” he said.

Venice fishing guide Ron Price is a huge fan of redfish, speckled trout, flounder and black drum. What he doesn't care for, however, is a federal agency he equates with bottom-feeding hardhead catfish -- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the awful months following the passage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the corps, through eminent domain laws, took possession of a large swath of Price's property in Plaquemines Parish. It cost Price a fortune, and for a time, curtailed his successful charter operation. But now, 12 years later, business is booming and Price is expanding, with plans in place...

Four Confederate monuments were removed from New Orleans earlier this month following complaints that they celebrate racism, and now the city of Baltimore has plans to follow suit. But most voters oppose taking away these remnants of the past even if they are unpopular with some. While proposals have been made to get rid of monuments such as the Jefferson Memorial and the carving on Stone Mountain in Georgia because they honor men who practiced or defended slavery, just 19% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States should erase symbols of its past history that are out of line...

Left-wing rioters from Antifa drove to New Orleans in an armored assault vehicle, maced a woman in a wheelchair and defaced several Confederate statues. In exchange Confederate supporters landed punches and knocked an Antifa across the head with a flag pole. All of this happened Monday evening on May Day, a date significant to left-wing groups and which coincided with other uprisings around the country. Most of the violent activity occurred while police waited on the sidelines, according to sources who likened the situation to that in other liberal cities like Berkeley. Police were purportedly told to stand down while...