Mortgage lender implosion

The number of defunct mortgage lenders has risen to forty-four.

Bogalusa city audit

Federal violations detailed:

"...the City did not comply with requirements regarding procurements that are applicable to its Disaster Grants-Public Assistance Program, nor with requirements regarding allowable costs, Davis-Bacon Act, and procurement that are applicable to its Airport Improvement Program."[...]In his report, Seal wrote, "Most, or all, of the 2005 findings could have been avoided if effective internal controls had been maintained. Most of the noted weaknesses in internal control and findings were not hurricane related."

Will somebody please make the necessary arrests?

Jindal talks, but says nothing.

At WWL online:*

Public housing should be made available for working class families and the elderly, not a haven for the criminal element of society, Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) said Friday...

The law already prohibits drug convicts from living in public housing in New Orleans. Plenty of public housing residents were working poor and the elderly before Katrina. Duh, Bobby.

Further into the article, he says:

“Let’s make sure we don’t allow the drug dealers, the gang members, the sex offenders, those that have committed acts of domestic violence, let’s not them back,” Jindal said.

I appreciate the sentiment behind this. Recidivism being as high as it is, chances are that allowing convicted criminals into subsidized housing means there will be a whole lotta criminal activity goin' on there. I hate druggies, and I hate living near 'em, and many people in public housing share my sentiments.

I guess you could change the law to keep out other convicted criminals. I don't see how you'll extend the ban to "gang members," unless they're ex-cons, though. And I hardly think you can ban people who don't work. What about the disabled, and people receiving welfare?

The banned people will end up living in poor neighborhoods, most likely. In low-rent districts - many of which are adjacent to the housing projects. We'll move the problem a few blocks, is all.

We punish sex offenders forever, by making them register and other requirements. I don't think we should add restrictions to other ex-cons. We want them to go straight and integrate back into society. They already have a tough time getting jobs and education - drug offenders are prohibited from federal educational aid. I don't think the potential of a ban from public housing in future will be a deterrent that keeps people from dealing or using drugs. But it might discourage them from going straight after they've served their time.

* Registration required. Use Bug me not.

My eyes! My eyes!

I can tell every year when spring is well underway; the populous areas of Washington Parish turn a screaming, bilious hot pink.

Azaleas. They're everywhere. The South is overloaded with 'em, along with crape myrtle (more pink!) and Loropetalum (even more pink!). I won't get into those dang Bradford or Callery pears, which should all be torn out (they're invasive). Thank goodness they aren't pink, y'know?

We have many charming native shrubs which are waaaay underused.

If you've gotta go with azaleas, choose native cultivars. They are a shy but lovely ballerina next to the big, blowsy hot pink things that hurt my eyes. And they're often fragrant.

MSU Extension Service published a nice page with pics detailing 30 native shrubs for your landscape. Some are fragrant; many provide wildlife food.

And they don't hurt my eyes ;-).

Coming soon: A rant on invasive plants.

Sunspots or what?

We've been having connectivity problems, hence the paucity of new posts.

Some folks with the same ISP claim that the problem originates at the uplink; others say it's caused by solar flares.

Regardless, it's been making the connection time out. Plenty of problems surfing, and much worse when doing something interactive like filling in forms for blog posts.

We're very much looking forward to DSL by the end of this year :-).

Cathy Seipp - In Hospital

From her blog:

I'm at her bedside now, holding her hand. I tell her she has 292 comments on the latest blog post..her last but she just squeezes my hand. She was very happy with this blog. In honor of her, if you can...support the American Lung Cancer Society and or adopt stray dogs and cats from the pound. Those were her causes.

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who posted. As of 7:45am this morning she is still breathing and pulsing but is passing peacefully.

She was a wonderful writer and a very brave woman. If you pray, say a prayer.

If you've never heard of her - start reading.

UPDATE: Link fixed.

Black and white and read all over

We heard today that a teacher at one of the public schools read aloud an opinion piece from the Daily News as an example of bigotry.

I agree, wholeheartedly, enthusiastically, in spades, and with bells on. So the opinion piece is gonna receive a fisking.

By Lou Major:

It's bad enough we have horrid academic achievement in the Bogalusa school system, but hand-in-hand with the despicable safety and security problems, we have that age-old menace: Racial Divide.

This promises to be exciting, doesn't it? Danger, failure and "Racial Divide" all at once! Capitalized, even!

There have been many meetings over the past year and-a-half about the fast deterioration of the quality of education in the local school system. School Board members, some parents, teachers and politicians have all joined the quest for improvement. We have been told over and over that this will take time; it cannot be achieved in just one year.

It took more than a year for the problems to develop and become serious, and surely it'll take more than a year to solve them. That makes sense.

If you are going to claim that the deterioration was "fast," I want to see that backed up with stats. The problems have existed for the several years we've been here.

"Zero tolerance" of fighting, insolence and threats has been put into place, presumably as the best thing so far to try to solve those problems. Various thrusts at academic improvement have been introduced at every level.

Sounds pretty good so far. Give "zero tolerance" time to work.

And all the while, very, very few people have wanted to face up to the "racial divide" problem. It is there. Less than a handful of people at all these meetings have dared to talk openly about one of the serious problems that leads to so many of the other problems. They talk in numbers, for the most part. The numbers show that all of the students leaving the Bogalusa schools are white kids. Nobody knows for sure where they are all going and from what I can determine, nobody is zeroing in on finding out.

"The word" is that they are going to Franklinton, Pine, Bowling Green, St. Tammany and Mississippi.

I know that some of them are going to the Franklinton school district, where the parents I spoke to are claiming that the high school is "better." If they think it's academically better, I shot that down in "Dishonest or dumb?".

It's white flight, is all it is. Considering the parish's history, my conclusion is logical.

C'mon, you guys voted for David Duke. And you're surprised there's white flight? The irony has overtopped my hip waders.

Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, Bogalusa students were allowed to go to other schools, presumably until the local school system got up and running again. Hordes of them did just that. The only problem is, they have not come back, and almost all of them are white kids. After the immediate shock of Katrina ended, displaced students were supposed to "go home" to their normal schools. It didn't happen. At one of the meetings recently, it was stated that schools which allowed the Bogalusa students in following the hurricane were supposed to send them back; it was a matter of honoring school boundaries.

That has all added to the growing "racial divide" in the Bogalusa schools.

I thought students were supposed to go to their district schools, unless they were enrolled in a private school - which, naturally, might be outside the district lines. In some places, attending an out-of-district school is illegal.

If anybody's breakin' the law, maybe the DA oughtta get involved, hmmm?

Two years ago, there were 1,270 white students in Bogalusa schools. This year, the number is down to 806. Two years ago, there were 1,595 black students in Bogalusa schools. This year, the number is 1,604. So while there are 450 fewer white students, there are the same number of black students.

As the trend has continued, this means that five years ago there was a 50/50 ratio of white to black students in the Bogalusa schools. Today, the ratio is 65 percent black to 35 percent white.

If we want our kids to grow up to be able to work with people of other ethnic backgrounds, we need to quit caring about this. Yes, just quit caring. Don't see color, see people, and you'll teach your kids to do the same.

That's the only way to stop the "Racial Divide" if by that phrase you mean bigotry.

Sadly, as I read on, it appears that you mean something else.

This growing preponderance of black students is manifesting itself in ways that most people don't even realize.

What? The nearest store sells less Prell, more Hair-Gro?

Forgive me, I couldn't resist. Hang on, it gets much better.

The Bogalusa High Paper Dolls illustrates the point. In 1970, there were 27 Paper Dolls, the dancing group which struts at football games, parades, etc. Of the 27, only 2 were black girls; 25 were white. By 1992, of 23 Paper Dolls, 21 were white and 2 were black, still about the same as 20 years earlier. However, by 1997, the numbers changed to 21 white girls and 6 black girls. In just the next three years, the numbers had gone to 15 white girls and 7 black girls.

Continuing the quickening trend, the next year there were 22 white girls and 11 black girls.

This year, the "racial divide" was glaring. There are 11 Paper Dolls at BHS; not one of them is white.

Additionally, the varsity cheerleading squad this year is made up of 12 girls. Only one is white.

A look at the BHS Band tells the same story.

All this tells me is that the white kids either aren't trying out for the Paper Dolls and varsity cheerleading, or they aren't making the grade. Apparently the white kids aren't choosing band as an activity, either.

Why don't you do some research and find out why this is? And publish what the black/white ratio is at the high school, too. If white students are a small minority, it shouldn't shock you that some extracurricular activities are all black.

Now your editorial sounds like the whine of a white supremacist.

"Waaaah! The blacks have everything! They locked us out! Waaaaah!"

At most of the "curative" meetings, I recall one person willing to stand up and recognize there is a problem: Rev. Coleman Moses, one of the school system's Task Force members who has continued to be active with the group initially appointed by School Supt. Jerry Payne. Rev. Moses has repeatedly spoken out about the need for all of the school disciplinary problems to be attacked first at home. That is the obvious starting place, but getting that accomplished is another thing.

Getting down to the nuts and bolts, how do you get into the homes of the most unruly kids and get their parents, many of them only the mother, to make their kids obey the rules, be polite, study hard, cause no trouble? I sure don't have the answer and it seems like nobody else has, either.

The problems are more than readin', writin' and 'rithmetic.

I definitely believe that "zero tolerance" needs several years to show results.

However, I am dismayed at this juxtaposition of "the blacks have it all," a bunch of white kids left, and discipline problems in the editorial. There's a very unpleasant implication floating between the lines, there.

Elementary school kids are still staying in the Bogalusa school system. Even the discipline nightmare at the Bogalusa Middle School (junior high) has not sent white students running elsewhere. But the trend at Bogalusa High is alarming. The numbers prove the point. Something has to be done or the enrollment of white students will continue to dwindle until "racial divide" will be almost complete.

This won't be PC, Lou, but I can and will explain it to you.

We ain't from here. But we have had the distasteful experience of being told by white "born-heres" that we should send our kids to another high school, out of the district, because otherwise those boys will try to date our girls.

They weren't talkin' 'bout white boys.

You may recall from a previous post that back in the 60s, the FBI considered Washington Parish to have the highest per-capita membership in the KKK of any county in the nation. Do the math. It's those klukkers' grandkids that are being pulled out of Bogalusa High and sent elsewhere.

You think attitudes like that change in one or two generations? I know better. Judging from how I've been warned of the "dangers" of BHS, those attitudes are alive and kickin'. Kickin' hard, Lou.

I've never been anywhere else in this whole wide world where so many whites were so willing to be upfront and vocal about their racism. Anywhere else, the majority of the white population would shun them.

"Run, run! They'll rape your daughters!" Sheesh.

Gee, maybe the black parents are the ones who should be worried. There's a lot more historical precedent about white boys raping black girls, isn't there?

Let the bigots pack their sheets and leave the system. From what I've seen, the kids that remain at Bogalusa High - of all races - get along across racial lines and have a decent, open-minded attitude. I applaud them. They are our future; perhaps this is the generation that will bury the sorry past.

Y'all definitely need fresh blood, y'know? More come-heres, to dilute out this nonsense.

Daily News watch

Oops, they did it again. Looks like an unrelated photo and article are paired in the online Daily News. I think this lady's picture probably belongs with an obit (click to enlarged):

New blogs!

New to me, that is, and they're cool, so I added 'em to the blogroll.

First is The Answer Bird. Marvin the African parrot gives advice - keyboarded by his human, Steve Graham. Set down yer coffee, or lose yer monitor, lol.

Mostly Cajun blogs from southwest Louisiana. Today's post, Critters and electricity, is a hoot :-).

New stuff

In the left-hand sidebar, I've added a current weather sticker from Weather Underground.

Global warming?

Wishing ain't gonna make it so:

Entergy said this winter has been colder than any since 2003-04...Link.

Insensitivities

Usually I am more likely to gripe about the nuttiness that is political correctness, but this is givin' me a real "duh!" moment.

Via Lou Minatti:

Boeing is studying the 737 replacement. The Times understands that two early prototypes have been drawn up: a wider, twin-aisle version and a shorter, single-aisle jet. These have been dubbed Fat Boy and Little Boy. Link

For the young 'uns who don't get it: Fat Man and Little Boy.

Mortgage lender implosion, again

The number gone kerplunkt is now THIRTY-SIX.

You'll never look at a burger the same way. Heh.

Cows with guns

Mortgage lender implosion

THIRTY-FOUR mortgage lenders have gone bust.

Previous:

If I had any extra money... -- posted Sunday, March 4, 2007. Three more MLs down the tubes since this post.

Hello again!

So many visitors from interesting places. I'd love it if you posted in the comments where you're from, and how ya got here.

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So busy [sigh]. It's spring, and that means extra chores, what with stuff growin'. There aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done sometimes, know what I mean?

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At the Hard Copy board, all the old posts on the page disappeared and it started over with a clean slate. That's a Very Good Thing; it was getting quite difficult to sort wheat from chaff.

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Gorgeous weather. Enjoy it! I'll be making a couple posts later on with news, opinion and gossip.

If I had any extra money...

... I'd probably buy silver coins and bury them in Mason jars in the backyard.

Stock market shenanigans. Subprime lenders going bust. Housing prices and the bubble. It's all there at Housing Panic, and it ain't goin' away.

Read the posts, the links and the comments, and plan accordingly.

UPDATE: Thirty-one mortgage lenders have gone bust since late 2006.

Garden planning

I usually spend my "seed money" at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

They ship promptly. Their prices are decent.

And they've got the most interesting stuff!

Cassabanana or Melocoton:

The fruit are brilliant, flaming red and are about 2' long, one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen! They have bright orange flesh that is sweet and is used in drinks, jellies and other desserts, it has a unique tropical fruit taste. The fruit are so fragrant and keep for a long period, like squash, making this a hot item for fall sales for pumpkin growers. Huge vines can grow to 50' and are quite ornamental, but they do require a long season.

Guess I'll need to put up one heck of an arbor, for a 50-foot vine. Yikes.

49 varieties of heirloom tomatoes - and that's just the red ones!

We'll be canning white tomato sauce this year.

They also have gardening forums.

Note: I am not connected with nor an affiliate of Baker Creek. Just a satisfied customer.

Slothful Sunday

I took a nap.

How 'bout you?

Our filthy computer

We had to replace the CD-ROM drive and as long as we had the case open, added some memory.

Whew! was it ever dusty in there!

So off we went to Wal-Mart for a can or two of compressed air.

None to be found. None in the back, none at the front.

None at Rite-Aid or CVS. None at the various dollar stores.

How and why did the whole town run out of canned air?

Bring in your pets!

It's gonna be pretty cold tonight and every night this week comin' up.

Don't make Phideaux and Fluffi suffer outdoors. Man's Best Friend and your feline both deserve a spot by the hearth.

R.I.P, David Creed Rogers

Sad news [link]:

David Creed Rogers, 85, one of the last remaining links to Washington Parish's bloody civil rights legacy, died Monday at Good Samaritan Nursing Home.

And excellent news:

"We have some very hot leads on this case," Jim Bernazzani, special agent in charge of the FBI in New Orleans, said.

It's a shame Mr. Rogers didn't live to see justice. He surely wanted to.

But he isn't the last remaining link to those times. The last links are the people who know -- the people who need to unburden themselves by calling the FBI, before they've gotta try and explain it to St. Peter.

Get on the phone and do the right thing, folks. Help put the murderers in prison where they belong, and truly end Bogalusa's sordid legacy of lynchings and killings and bigotry.