Gregg Henderson from LSU Ag Center Warns!

The attached paper received top honors (best paper) in American Entomologist for 2008 (The Editor’s Choice Award and the writer will be honored at the Entomological Society of America National Meeting in INDY this December. But its value is this:

The termites have invaded the levees again!

Attachment:   Henderson.pdf

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Attachment:   ProtectBayhcut1_no20_WMV9_480x3

As more evidence the charter movement is growing, they hold a statewide conference in NOLA, starting Friday. See the link for details...And if you want to know what a virtual charter school looks like, national reps from the leader CONNECTIONS ACADEMY, will be on hand to show you what a future school looks like. It is nothing short of incredible...

Link :   www.lacharterschools.org

Levees.org wants more than a personnel review; makes request today

Dear Senator Landrieu,

Thank you for your speedy response to our request, and for taking these disturbing, and in some cases, appalling allegations, seriously.

We appreciate your alerting the Department of Defense about this issue as these actions may be in violation of existing Department of Defense directives.

Still we wish to stress that since these activities may have violated Federal statutes, they must also be reviewed by the Department of Justice.

In short, we believe that the alleged activities may be far more than just a personnel matter within the Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, please also be aware that Levees.Org intends to file a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel to look into possible violations of the Hatch Act and Department of Defense Directive 1344.10.

Again, thank you for your speedy response to our concerns. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours truly,

Sandy Rosenthal
Executive Director

HJ Bosworth Jr, PE
Research Director

Vince Pasquantonio
Legislative Liaison
Attachment:   affidavit.pdf

Become an advocate for Higher Ed

I got all my education degrees here in Louisiana: high school, BA and MA. I adored the political science department at UNO, Professor Werner Feld and others who helped me receive my Masters. Like all colleges in Louisiana, they are faxing a budget ax. We got to talk some sense into the state budget process. Help these guys out. Click on the link and become a UNO advocate. They say: All public universities and colleges in Louisiana are facing a reduction in their annual state funding of $218 million. Of that amount, UNO has been told to expect a $15.3 million reduction to its annual state appropriation or 20.1% of its state budget on July 1, 2009.

Link :   www.ciclt.net/uno

She's a fan, we're a fan.

Welcome to New Orleans. That is my hubby photographer Harold Baquet, with America's most famous Republican commentator. And yes, she knows we're democrats and still likes us anyway.

School Board Member Robichaux steps up too

The Councilman, an adoptive parent himself, says: I am very proud of the position our office took on this. I don't know if we can stop the state legislature from adopting this repugnant, discriminatory and mean spirited piece of legislation but we are sure going to try!! Orleans School Board Member Thomas Robichaux also stepped forward to speak on behalf of children in Louisiana who seek to be adopted. HB 60 hurts adopted children. At a time when Louisiana is demanding parental responsibility, it makes no sense to list only one parent on a birth certificate, when both are willing to accept their responsibilities as parents. At best, this bill would hurt adopted children in obtaining medical care, in medical decision making, in enrolling in medical insurance plans, and in a host of other ways. At worst, this bill encourage Louisiana's vital records department to issue fraudulent documents.HB 60 is an weird attempt to legislate morality about "who" is a parent. The Forum for Equality asks for your help in defeating this legislation. Find out more by pasting this link in your browser: http://eqfed.org/campaign/HB_60_Vote/8nbw7xn4v7kkte3x?

Link :   www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ET2_a9xfN4

From Nagin to Jindal: What's to fear?
James Gill wonders where ethical Bobby has gone

The recent columns by James Gill and Stephanie Grace about transparency hit the mark: Where did the ethical Bobby Jindal go? Don't recent stories prove that letting the sunshine in government has proven to be a good thing for voters. Whether the argument is over Mayor Nagin's calendar and emails, or access to Jindal's as he seeks to become the GOP Prez nominee, the point is the same: taxpayers have a right to access the memorandum of public officials doing public business. Senator Ed Murray weighed in on this topic this week with a good suggestion: Government watchdog groups like BGR of NOLA or PAR of Baton Rouge need to step in here with sound policy suggestions, so the next election season, voters can hold accountable those who seek to dine at the public trough with reasonable accessibility policies.

Link :   blog.nola.com/jamesgill/2009/05/james_gill_for_lawmakers_a_que.html

Panama Canal, Mental Health, Field of Dreams and Police Monitors

Dear New Orleanians:

As the weather gets warmer and we make our way deeper into Spring (and closer to Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest!), there are some important things that I would like you to be aware of:

Pushing for Coastal-Restoration Projects
Coastal Louisiana has lost more than 1,875 square miles of land between 1932 and 2000, which equates to the loss of one football field every 38 minutes! The severe loss of our natural coastal protection system has directly contributed to the increasing severity of recent storms – most notably, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav.

While levees are an important component of coastal protection, they are not enough to prevent catastrophic hurricane damage. The 2005 Louisiana Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast identified the construction of large-scale land diversions as a critical component in coastal protection. Land diversions direct freshwater, nutrients, and sediment into the Delta Basin to rebuild lost wetlands and sustain existing land.

Oh! My! God! Exactly!!

Columnist DeBerry writes:

There have certainly been times recently when the mayor has said or done something that has made me angry, but more than anything else, I feel a great sadness for New Orleans. We survived the greatest catastrophe to ever befall New Orleans, but we seem determined to now destroy ourselves through racially charged fights about executive privilege, open meetings, public records laws and e-mails. So many people have picked sides: Nagin or the City Council; the black councilmembers or the white councilmembers; Tracie Washington or Stacy Head; Veronica White or Stacy Head; black entrepreneurs or transparency; black people or white people; Democrats or Republicans. Who among them is picking New Orleans?

Jarvis: This is exactly how we feel! And we so appreciate you voicing it. Since when did it become acceptable for government to be run by emotions rather than good policy. When everything is filtered through "black or white"glasses, we all lose.

Read the full column at the link.

Link :   blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2009/03/city_hall_feuding_stalls_progr.html

City Hall Explodes with Racial Hatred.
See latest TP article on email battle!

Yikes, Boy and Girl Wonder! Have you been seeing all the crap coming out of City Hall lately? What does it all mean?

1. That there are 8 people (the Mayor and City Council) that truly hate working with each other and they are using childish racial games to mete out their personal vendettas while the city suffers.

2. That there is no level to which these racial war of words won't stoop, including trying to convince citizens that the actions of these city hall regulars are "pushing back the clock" for black folk or unfairly abusing white folk's tax dollars.

3. While these city leaders draw racial lines in the sand, young black men continue to die from an all out gang or drug war in the city streets. But let's not deal with reality...

Link :   www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/_read_more_coverage.html

Prove them wrong! Hug someone who does not look like you!

Make it your personal priority to expand your universe. Worship, play, talk to people who are NOT LIKE YOU. Ask them their opinions so you hear what others feel in this gross racial atmosphere and take some small personal step to build bridges. Start with public schools. Volunteer. Donate. Help peace efforts like those led by Reverend John Raphael. Help the DA's office raise some needed resources for all those underpaid ADAs.

Get involved and prove the racebaiters wrong. YES WE CARE, MARCH 28, 10 A.M., Armstrong Park, NOLA; call 504.556-4445

Leaving, Loving, Laughing

HAPPY DAYS: All Catholics celebrate with the parishioners of St. Augustine
Church to learn their building will remain as an open place of worship. Congrats
to Fr. Moody and all those who worked and prayed so hard.

ANNOUNCEMENT: New Orleans Bishop Roger Morin is leaving for Biloxi. A
controversial figure recently due to his involvement in the church closings and
anti-Obama rantings regarding ACORN, he nevertheless leaves behind a long
legacy of service.

LAUGHING OUT LOUD: New Orleans Mag writes: BLESS THEM FATHER
Archbishop Alfred Hughes has distinguished himself in one way compared
to his predecessors. He is the first bishop to be satirized on Carnival floats.
The church-closing controversy got the barb on two floats, one in the Ancient
Druids parade and again with Chaos. A marching group in Le
Krewe D’Etat also spoofed the church arrests. In the Quarter, there were
several masked groups that carried the same theme. See the link for photos
by Photographer Brian Plauche (bpnola@cox.net)

NOT SO NICE: Parishioners of closed churches were threatened with
excommunication by certain religious in the Archdiocese if they did not stop
the Mardi Gras floats ridiculing Archbishop Hughes...AS if they had anything
to do with what private krewes do! So we thought you might want to read
the Boston AG's report on Archbishop Hughes role in the sex scandal. Read
pages 1-3, 35-37.

Link :   ourladyofgoodcounselchurchneworl.shutterfly.com

Attachment:   ReillyReport.pdf

By Henri Andre Fourroux III

(Councilwoman Cynthia) Hedge-Morrell made a serious statement yesterday before she abstained to override the Mayor's veto on his action to not open meetings to the public where the Mayor's office decides public contracts for the city.

No mention is ever made how racism figured into the decision to destroy public housing thus reducing the number of affordable housing units and thus creating more homeless and homelessness and how currently the illegal closure of Avery Alexander Charity Hospital affects mainly the poor and notablely poor black people of the region and notably of New Orleans.

I am also quite surprised and ask too why here, why now and why not back then? The city wasn't already polarized between the destitute and non destitute middle class?

Here we go again...

As usually happens in New Orleans, discussion of change usually leads to the race card being thrown somewhere by someone. But we all need to take a step back and chill as we enter Mardi Gras' most hectic days.

The City Council ordinance which has triggered our latest racial line-in-the-sand was to make committees of three, which met in private to select professional contracts, subject to the open meetings law. This was an issue of transparency.The Mayor then changed the dialogue by eliminating the committees and saying it was an attack on his power to give professional services contracts. Not true, but truth, with Nagin, always gets thrown out with emails, calendars and who knows what else.

Concurrent with this Council-Mayor showdown was the announcement by ministers of a recall petition against Congressman Anh Cao. This might have looked legitimate until one of those in attendance just happened to have a very close tie to the local Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee. So, its just about taking the seat back from an "R" to a "D". But in the meantime, we forget to thank Mr. Cao for beating a corrupt Congressman who was doing absolutely no good for the folk he claimed to represent. I'd still rather Mr. Cao over Mr. Jefferson any day in DC.

Nationally, the New York Post chose a "monkey" to represent the President's stimulus plan, a symbol which has ugly racial connotations and clearly underscored how insensitive people can be.

Finally, just before qualifying for the judgeships closed last week, in order to try to draw out some better known candidates, racial rumor-mongering was also running rampant.

There is a political leadership crisis in the New Orleans community, and it is true that the profile of the "winning" candidate since Katrina is increasingly a white male with a law degree. But there are other ways to rebuild a political community than to use the race card. The "race card" is what has gotten our city, our state in all this mess in the first place...since the days of Plessy v. Ferguson. Can't we just enter the 21st century?

Right now, the U.S. Attorney's statement that we are all a bunch of cowards when it comes to dealing honestly with our racial feelings looks truer and truer for New Orleans. Our real issue is that government is failing us. The race card prevents us from dealing with reality and thus, nothing changes. We need change.

After all, there were as many black as white folk upset about Nagin's lack of transparency. The Judge who says Nagin has broken the law by removing emails and calendars, all public documents, is African American, like him. Every race on the upcoming ballot has at least one white and one black challenger, giving those who want to choose a candidate only on the
color of their skin ample opportunity.

But let's hope saner minds and saner political philosophies come to the forefront and save the day. The average person needing really good government in this town, coupled with some equity and fairness, is African American, and that has been the case for at least the last 50
years. But those at the public trough for the last 25 years--a generation-- have been fairly split between the races, and in truth, we're still on the same road.

So let's find a way to work together and respect our culture, call out our imperfections when needed, and move on. Without hysterical and harmful words. Please.

Councilman Says: Please bear with the length of my latest newsletter, but there are so many positive things to report!

Dear New Orleanians:

City Government Embraces Transparency
In July 2008, I put forth legislation designed to open up the city’s process for reviewing and awarding professional service contracts. This contracting process involves public dollars and I felt it critically important that the process be as open and transparent as possible.

Since July, the City Council has received two opinions from the Louisiana Attorney General affirming the legislation’s intent to make the city’s professional service contracting process open to the public and the Attorney General also affirmed the Council’s legal right to enact such a law.

While my legislation applies equally to both the Executive and Legislative branches of city government, the Mayor’s Administration took issue with it.

After months of work, I am happy to report that, at the February 5, 2009 City Council meeting, my legislation passed unanimously.

The two pieces of legislation are:

- An Ordinance requiring that the Executive Branch of city government, through its professional service contracting process, comply with the Louisiana Open Meetings law.

- A Motion which mandates that the City Council, in its professional service contracting process, also fully comply with the Louisiana Open Meetings law.

download the brochure

This program offers financial assistance to victims of violent crime.
The program does not cover property losses, but is for bodily and
other harm caused in the commission of a crime, upon the uninsured or underinsured.
Attachment:   TEG_GusmanVictimAssistanceBroch

One analysis is done by Cowen Institute. Click the link below and read their latest newsletter on education. Here's another analysis from an internal memo circulating in the guv's office:

Following is a list of current appropriations included in the stimulus bill for Louisiana:

· Highways and Bridges: $471 million.
· State Budget Aid: $945 million (over two years).
· Medicaid $1.6 billion (over three years).
· Schools Modernization: $383 million.
· High-need schools: $269 million (over two years).
· Wastewater Treatment and Sewers: $64 million.
· Mass Transit: $57 million.
· Other Rail: $4 million.
· Education Technology Grants: $19 million.
· Head Start Program: $16 million.
· Low Income Energy Assistance: $9 million.

Link :   education.tulane.edu

FROM KWITCHEN1@AOL.COM
If you really want to honor, not only Wendy; but the other Quarterites that have shed blood on our streets, perhaps you can start a campaign to GET OUR STREETS LIT UP! After living through all the indignities that a resident could possibly live with: urine, vomit, condoms, needles, muggings, break-ins, car mutilation and MORE, we moved out. Residents are treated as second class citizens by authorities and only when one DIES do we get any attention and then it's "unfortunate"? Unfortunate is when you spill wine on your silk shirt ... not when one of your own is shot in the street like vermin and by teenagers that have been left to prey on Quarterites with virtual impunity. AND, although no one has yet to address gun control, would it not be possible to get a weapons carrying ban on the French Quarter, if
not other areas? We already know that counting on this administration for citizens safety is like spitting into the wind; the least we can expect, no demand of ourselves and our neighbors is to keep the streets lit up to discourage crime---You can roam the streets at night all you want, but you know when it comes to trouble, it's not if it will find you but when. Especially on a dark street. We tell tourists to stick to well lit streets...duh! LIGHT UP ALL THE STREETS!!!!!!--Philipe L.

FROM BUSINESSMAN DAVID CRAIS
What really galls me is the fact that there are always many police cars, marked and unmarked, parked on the sidewalks all around the Police Station at the corner of Royal and Bienville, but they hardly ever are patrolling. It used to bother me that they were tearing up the sidewalks, blocking walking paths and forcing people to walk in the street, etc., but now it's even worse because it just shows how little attention is paid by them in actually patrolling and doing field work in the district. People have been dying from this for years in the Quarter, Wendy Byrne isn't the first, and unfortunately, won't be the last. Maybe the police should be forced to park their vehicles on the perimeter of the Quarter. At least this would make them have to walk to get to HQ. It would be a start. We need to start caring about the residents in town as much as we do the tourists. I actually heard people say last week after the murder was reported, "at least it wasn't a tourist. We would be all over CNN if it was". We need to start caring whether it is a tourist or not!
davidcrais@hotmail.com

we'd laugh at this cartoon lampooning Archbishop Hughes

Take a look.

Link :   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJv5A3i9WzQ&evideo.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLR_enUS251US251&q=Our%20Lady%20of%20Good%2