As mentioned on the Hard Copy message board, right now until about Dec. 10 is the comment period for La Hwy 3241, a four-lane road that will link Washington Parish to more populous points south.
Email Barry Obiol in favor of it, please. His name, email, phone and the particulars of the project are about a third of the way down this page.
We need this project. Take a minute and email the man.
Great blog by Matthew Bristow, a journalist working in Colombia. Photos and videos.
Sorry for the hiatus, dah-links. We've been terribly busy, out of town, etc., etc.
Little bits:
Mack won the election.
The parish had tornadoes.
Cool weather at last.
Stay tuned for bigger, better posts in a day or 2.
Heavy thunderstorms this a.m., even some tornado warnings.
Probably got windy enough to knock down some of the "leaners" and "hangers."
As of the time of this post, The Daily News still has not been updated from Oct. 13, 2006.
Sheesh.
As of the time of this post, The Daily News issue showing on their website is still Friday, October 13, 2006.
Sheesh.
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 theAfter Katrina, FEMA reimbursed for chainsaws. They reimbursed for generators - which the state of Louisiana doesn't want to pay FEMA for.
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.
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.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.
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 Daily News is still showing the Friday, October 13 issue.
It's Wednesday, October 18.
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.
