Free Republic

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Dr. Jeffrey Coco, his wife and their three children returned to New Orleans especially for a New Year's Eve party held at a neighbor's house that did not flood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They stayed in the second story of their own house. "We normally have a fireworks display that rivals most ball parks," he laughed. "We toned it down a lot this year because all the blue roofs around." Many damaged roofs throughout the city are covered with blue plastic tarps. Coco's business is gone, along with his wife's job, his children's school...

The Indonesian government yesterday showed its appreciation to U.S. soldiers who have been risking their lives helping tsunami victims by ordering them to get out of the country by the end of March. "Three months are enough," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the official Antara news agency. "In fact, the sooner [they leave] the better." Kalla's government also forced the Abraham Lincoln, from which Navy pilots have flown dozens of food supply missions to the hard-hit Aceh Province, to steam out of Indonesian waters because they refused to let U.S. pilots fly training missions in their air space. The...