Everybody okay?

Heavy thunderstorms this a.m., even some tornado warnings.

Probably got windy enough to knock down some of the "leaners" and "hangers."

No new news yet

As of the time of this post, The Daily News still has not been updated from Oct. 13, 2006.

Sheesh.

So update already!

As of the time of this post, The Daily News issue showing on their website is still Friday, October 13, 2006.

Sheesh.

Louisiana will reimburse FEMA only 88%

The Yahoo article is reprinted here in its entirety, because their stuff seems to disappear into a black hole after a while:

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana's legislative auditor recommended Friday that the state pay 88 percent of what the
Federal Emergency Management Agency is seeking in reimbursement for hurricane recovery efforts, saying the rest of the money was either improperly spent or couldn't be accounted for.

After getting approval from a legislative budget panel, state officials planned Friday to wire that 88 percent — $335 million — to FEMA.

It was unclear how the state would deal with the remaining money, about $45 million, that FEMA says it is owed.

Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot said in some instances people with invalid addresses or duplicate homes received FEMA benefits that they shouldn't have. The state also objected to payments FEMA made to people for generators, a cost Theriot said it doesn't appear the state ever backed as a type of disaster aid.

States are required to pick up part of the cost for certain types of FEMA disaster aid, including assistance for individuals like medical care, funeral services and property damage after a disaster.

Lawmakers set aside a $424 million but asked Theriot's office to investigate FEMA's bills before making payments. Theriot's review was based on a sample of 425 of the nearly 290,000 people who received FEMA aid after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the state last year.

After Katrina, FEMA reimbursed for chainsaws. They reimbursed for generators - which the state of Louisiana doesn't want to pay FEMA for.

Nice going, Blanco [sarcasm]. Can't say I like your attitude. It does not seem very extravagant to me, a generator for people staying in their homes after the storm, and a chainsaw to help them clean up.

I wonder if FEMA is going to come after the recipients of that assistance and make them pay the money back.

Medical care

There's a lot I don't understand about insurance. But this has me completely baffled:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday the state is prepared to embrace an insurance-based health-care pilot program for the New Orleans area, but only if the federal government provides enough money to make it work.

Blanco said she thinks it would cost about $300 million more a year than the state currently spends on health care to cover the uninsured in the New Orleans area with the government-subsidized private policies federal authorities are pushing for.

The insurance industry must have a great lobby. I can't see why we would cover the presently uninsured by subsidizing medical insurance, and creating another layer of profit.

Makes a lot more sense to me to stick with the Charity Hospital system we had in place. Yeah, the buildings were ugly, but the care was good.

How is putting medical insurance into the equation going to make the care better or improve the buildings?

My opinion, it won't. It'll just make some insurance execs richer.

C'mon, update already.

The Daily News is still showing the Friday, October 13 issue.

It's Wednesday, October 18.

Shame on 'em.

According to Gambit Weekly:

Emergency Management Services, the out-of-state contractor hired by the Louisiana Recovery Authority to administer the "Road Home" program, will have collected more than $87 million in fees by the end of this month from the state — but as of last week had given out less than $620,000 to only 13 homeowners...

If that ain't against the law, it oughtta be.

Warning!

Un PC but hilarious video about the New Orleans looters.

Alvin Carter

Main Street mural captures lessons of unity:

Drivers heading north on Main Street approaching Main Street Books' parking lot may notice a tall, thin African-American man with graying dread locks and beard. They are witnessing a master muralist, artist and teacher creating a work of art. This is something he has done for many years. The theme of his work is a positive message of cooperation, expressing social solidarity and future possibility. He depicts regular people of all races creeds and colors working in unity.

Muralist, artist and teacher Alvin Carter is one of the artists selected by a team from the 2006 Class of Leaders for a New Century. Their project is "Canvassing the City," the painting of murals on vacant walls in downtown Hattiesburg.

Click the caption and read the whole thing.

ACLU, SLU, Tangi Parish reach settlement

From the Louisiana ACLU website:

­The ACLU of Louisiana announces a favorable settlement in the case of student teacher Cynthia Thompson versus Southeastern Louisiana University and the Tangipahoa Parish School Board. SLU will remove the failing grade on the student teaching course from her transcript and allow her the opportunity to enroll in the future to complete the requirements for graduation. Furthermore, an investigation of teacher Pamela Sullivan by the school board verified the allegations of officially sponsored prayer in the classroom and Bible study before class, which led to the cessation of such practices.[...]Thompson, who had made the President’s List and the Dean’s List and accumulated all of the hours to graduate, was never determined to be a marginal student. Yet two weeks before completion of the student teaching assignment, she was pulled out of the classroom, after teaching all day, and given an untenable ultimatum to withdraw or take an “F.”

Deliberately failing an honors student because of her refusal to preach in the public schools amounts to religious fascism, in my opinion.

Too bad they settled. They should have been sued into penury.

Give a pint. Save a life.

Les Dickens needs our help:

Donors can give blood Saturday in Bush to help a veteran firefighter who is suffering from a rare blood disease.

The blood drive to help Les Dickens, assistant chief of the Bush Volunteer Fire Department, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bush Fire Station No. 3, 80581 Louisiana 21, about two miles south of House of Seafood.

Dickens, president of the volunteer fire board, is suffering from thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and a blood plasma exchange is the only treatment. The treatment is about 90 percent effective.

Fire Chief Randy Kimble said blood types A and B are acceptable for the combination AB plasma exchange.

Dickens has been a member of the Fire Department for more than 20 years.

"He has given himself freely to this community over the years and now he needs our help," Kimble said.

Those unable to get to the blood drive can donate blood in Dickens' name at the Hammond Blood Center. [from the Times picayune]

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura at Netdoctor UK
Blood donation guidelines - Red Cross

Congrats to the JROTC Drill Team!

We heard you earned a third place. Nothing to sneeze at, so close to the beginning of the school year and with new members.

Previous:

Go JROTC!

Fill 'er up in Covington

We found gas for $2.189 a gallon yesterday, on Hwy 190 near the turnoff for 21.

Theft at school

We heard that an unfortunate young lady lost her purse the other day.

Ask teachers if purses and other belongings can be locked up somewhere safe during after school activities. And I would keep cash and small valuables (cell phones) in pockets if at all possible.

St. Bernard's new housing ordinance

Wow. The nerve. The stupidity.

And now, inevitably, the federal lawsuit:

A New Orleans civil rights organization filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a St. Bernard Parish ordinance that prohibits many homes from being rented to anyone who is not a blood relative of the owner... [...]After enacting an across-the-board moratorium on renting single-family homes in March, the council voted 5-2 on Sept. 19 to lift the moratorium, but require that the renter be a blood relative of the owner.

Trust a transplant to see through this nonsense:

“Blood relatives? That’s just a code word for skin color,” said Munoz, who moved to Violet from Los Angeles 20 years ago. “How would they even enforce this? Are they going to run DNA tests on everyone who wants to rent a house?”

Heck, maybe they will.

Somebody ought to check out whether the "yea" voters on the council have interest in a genetics lab...

Update:

Related: Just go home?

$60,000 generator

Bogalusa's Mayor entered into an apparently-illegal cost-plus contract. Either that contract or another one was incredibly expensive - the apprentice on the job was paid over $30 an hour, according to one article I read. I am looking for the reference and will update when I find it.

In the unsuccessful hunt for that cite, I ran into this Daily News article from March 20, 2006 - a lovely "wish list" for Bogalusa emergency operations, said Mack the Mayor. It includes:

One generator for City Hall for communications and operations during emergencies, $60,000

That's a lot of money for a generator, even though I'm sure they need a big one.

So I surfed on over to Generator Joe to look up prices. A 105kW Baldor natural gas model is about $23,000, weather enclosed. Probably a few more thousand for delivery and hook-up, maybe have to pour a concrete pad for it, etc.

Seems like that'd be plenty big enough, to run lights and computers and radios? I'm hardly an expert in such matters, but that is one humongous gen.

Maybe somebody is going to procure it cost plus. Heh.

The state of the schools

All of the public school buildings in Bogalusa sustained damage due to Hurricane Katrina. Windows popped, roofs came off, interiors were damaged - along with equipment, of course.

One child we know is in Home Ec at Bogalusa Junior High. There are no sewing machines, he says, because they got wrecked in the storm.

Okay. It's a whole frickin' year after Katrina. Wonderful people all over the U.S. have donated money and supplies to our schools by the truckload. And apparently some equipment still hasn't been replaced.

Wasn't any of this insured? Hello?

Yes, as it turns out, it was. The city received 84.37 percent of the total claimed in damages, nearly a year after the storm. The date of the article is July 12, 2006. The insurer is American First Insurance.

Maybe shop around for another insurer, folks. I'm willing to pay taxes for better insurance coverage for the Bogalusa schools.

And sewing machines.

Election returns

Here.