New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas
confirmed Shawn Scott as the second shooting suspect. In 2007, Scott
pleaded guilty in possession of cocaine and heroin and was sentenced to
five years probation. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to possession with
intent to distribute heroin and was to serve an eight year sentence. He
was out on parole until December 2015. Like his brother Akein, Scott was
charged this morning with 20 counts of second degree attempted murder.
(A person was trampled by the crowd following the shooting and has been
identified among the victims, hence the 20 counts of attempted second
degree murder.)
"Shawn has a lengthy record and has demonstrated his contempt for New Orleans," Serpas said.
Why should the Chief be content to simply have apprehended the perpetrators of a heinous attempted murder that seriously injured several innocent people? In Serpasland, it's always better to go on TV an add some weird faux jingoism about "contempt of city".
Perhaps there is some cathartic value in shunning all those whose hearts have betrayed the incorporated municipal jurisdiction that is our beloved homeland. But it probably doesn't fall within the purview of the police to carry out this action in their official capacity.
Serpas
is just adding a condescending insult to the very real wound.
Please just arrest the kids and shut up. Nobody needs to hear the pandering
bullshit about imaginary treason or whatever on top of it all.
Oh and this isn't very helpful either.
The New Orleans Police Department’s Traffic Division will conduct a
Sobriety Checkpoint in the Orleans Parish area beginning at
approximately 9:00 P.M., and will conclude at approximately 5:00 A.M.
Motorists will experience minimal delays and should have the proper
documentation available if requested, i.e., proof of insurance, driver’s
license, etc.
Meanwhile, for those of you who do not wish to follow the Chief's example, here are some positive and constructive actions you can take in the wake of the Mother's Day shootings.
Tickets to the benefit are $40 in advance and are available online via Ticketweb.
The organizations also announced formation of The 19 Fund, a special
fund-raising effort to aid the 19 victims of the May 12 shooting — and
future victims of violence in greater New Orleans. The 19 Fund was the
brainchild of representatives of the four nonprofits as well as several
concerned citizens who volunteered to help victims of the shooting. The
mission of The 19 Fund is “to help victims of violence heal physically,
financially and emotionally.”
Also, friends and family of Deb Cotton have established a fund to help her with her medical expenses. The link to donate is here. I've put up an attractive button on the sidebar of this site in case you feel like donating next week or some other time in the future.
The Gulf of Mexico, aided by sinking land and rising seas, has been
swallowing this region at such a horrifying rate that a coastline that
was a long-day’s boat ride away just 30 years ago could be at the city’s
back door in 50 years.
What is arguably the greatest
environmental and economic disaster in the nation’s history is racing
toward a tragic climax that few of the tourists who flock here know
about — and that Congress has shown little interest in addressing.
It
is a struggle with massive environmental and economic implications for
the nation. Yet those involved in this fight now candidly admit two
points:
They are losing.
And if they don’t stage a
comeback, most of the land in this part of the state will be under water
by the end of the century, resulting in one of the largest permanent
human migrations in the nation’s history, and one of its worst economic
calamities.
Most of southeast Louisiana, shut off from the river sediment that
had built it over thousands of years, was now on a long, slow walk to
the graveyard, a process that would take centuries.
It would take
that long because sediment-starved deltas have two other ways to offset
subsidence: the annual cycle of plant growth provides its own type of
sediment, and the high tides — and even storm surges — bring in sediment from near shore deposits.
But even those lifelines were about to be broken.
Around
the time those levees were completed a new threat to the region was
gaining steam, one that would compress that centuries-long death march
into a sprint of just decades.
Soon,
the wetlands began falling apart. Ponds became lagoons, which became
lakes, which became bays — and the coast began receding northward.
Because oil and gas are the primary culprit in this crime, much effort has been expended in trying to get the industry to assume the cost of recovery (if recovery is even possible at this point.)
But this is an elusive aim since the oil and gas lobby is... well, they're oil and gas.
Now, with the state urgently seeking $50 billion to fund the master plan
it says can save some of what’s left, environmental groups have called
for the oil industry, which already pays some fees, to be held more
accountable for the damage it caused.
But the industry says its activities were permitted by the state, and besides, it’s already done its share.
“We
feel we’re playing our part in this endeavor,” says Lyons of the Oil
and Gas Association. “Taxes or things like that, over and above that, I
think that would be inappropriate.”
For BP, a finding of gross negligence would mean the
company might be liable to the U.S. for as much as $17.6 billion
in Clean Water Act fines, as well as unspecified punitive
damages to claimants who weren’t part of a $8.5 billion
settlement the company reached with most private party
plaintiffs last year.
More than 100 nonprofit organizations and government entities will share
almost $44 million in BP funds to promote Gulf Coast tourism and the
seafood industries impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the
court-appointed oil-spill claims administrator said Wednesday.
The state’s “Top Chef” contribution will come from a recovery fund established by BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster,
said Jacques Berry, communication director for Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne,
who oversees the state’s department of culture, recreation and tourism.
What's particularly saddening about the fact that BP settlement money is going toward bribing television producers while the Louisiana coast is fading away is that the only reason anyone paid any attention at all to it this week is because it became the subject of a celebrity food fight on Twitter.
A report that circulated yesterday via nola.com and Eater National
revealed that the Louisiana Office of Tourism money that was part of
the deal that got Top Chef New Orleans done was $200,000 of BP cash for
promoting Louisiana that was distributed following the the Big Oozy.
(Anthony) Bourdain promptly thought of another idea, and Tweeted it out to Andy Cohen, who doubles as a Bravo exec and host of Watch What Happens Live.
So if you are scoring at home. A New York food personality, a Baltimore
newspaper man-cum-director, and a St. Louis exile who traffics in human
reality are lecturing each other on the proper usage of funds received
by Louisiana from a British company. This is either a punchline to the
worst joke in history or a set-up for a Mark Twain quote. Now this may
sound xenophobic, but it is quite presumptuous of people who don't live
here to tell us what we can and can't do with our money. Sure, we may be
jaded at the end of tourist season with outsiders, but really can you
just leave us alone?
This should have been an argument between citizens and the tourism racketeers mishandling their money. But then.. this happened. Maybe we're the ones being grossly negligent.
I thought our experience in New Orleans would have demonstrated that when federal prosecutors want to track down a leak, they don't have to go through all this rigamarole. Eventually it all just comes out in the local Newhouse online publication. Fred Heebe can put them in touch with a decent forensic linguist if they don't already have one.
Meanwhile go read Greenwald who makes two excellent points. One is that the Grown Up press is awfully late to the game acknowledging that the Obama Adminstration has surpassed and lapped Bush/Cheney several times over in abuses of basic civil liberties.
For years, the Obama administration has been engaged in pervasive spying
on American Muslim communities and dissident groups. It demanded a
reform-free renewal of the Patriot Act and the Fisa Amendments Act of
2008, both of which codify immense powers of warrantless eavesdropping,
including ones that can be used against journalists. It has prosecuted
double the number of whistleblowers under espionage statutes as all
previous administrations combined, threatened to criminalize WikiLeaks,
and abused Bradley Manning to the point that a formal UN investigation
denounced his treatment as "cruel and inhuman".
The other, is that you can never overestimate the capacity of establishment so-called "liberals" for craven hypocrisy in these matters.
This is such an under-appreciated but crucial aspect of the Obama legacy. Recall back in 2008 that the CIA prepared a secret report
(subsequently leaked to WikiLeaks) that presciently noted that the
election of Barack Obama would be the most effective way to stem the
tide of antiwar sentiment in western Europe, because it would put a
pleasant, happy, progressive face on those wars and thus convert large
numbers of Obama supporters from war opponents into war supporters.
That, of course, is exactly what happened: not just in the realm of
militarism but civil liberties and a whole variety of other issues.
"Looking at the film, he stood out as being an outstanding player. Then you watch him on the practice field and kind of get the feeling that you were seeing a special kind of player at that position."
That is very impressive in that it leaves an impression on you. Maybe not a great one, but still.
Chuck Muncie, a three-time Pro Bowler who was the New Orleans Saints'
first-round pick in 1976--but whose career was derailed by drug
abuse--died Monday of a heart attack, the New Orleans Saints have
confirmed. Muncie played with the Saints from 1976 through the first
four games of the 1980 season before being traded to San Diego.
You know if I were to go back through the near decade's worth of "Quote of the Day" posts on this blog and sort the quotes according to their originators, I have a strong suspicion the greatest number of those will have come from James Gill.
James Gill, whose acerbic wit and incisive columns about Louisiana politics and peccadillos have appeared in The Times-Picayune since 1986, is the latest T-P name to jump ship to The Advocate.
"It's very hard to make out a quote, because quotes are all bullshit," Gill told Gambit tonight. "But I am delighted to go to the highest bidder, I am happy to be renewing my association with [former Times-Picayune managing editor, now Advocate editor] Peter Kovacs — and I am delighted we have a newspaper war again after so many years."
More than 1,100 Caddo and Webster students have signed up to
participate in what some say are questionable Course Choice programs.
According to parents, students, and Webster and Caddo education
officials, FastPath Learning is signing up some students it shouldn’t —
in many cases without parent or student knowledge.
A free tablet computer is offered to those who enroll, and some educators
believe that’s all the potential enrollees hear. Money to pay for the
courses comes from each school district’s state-provided Minimum
Foundation Program funding.
Lanier proposes a system of ubiquitous surveillance, with cameras,
databases and all. Since we can’t get any privacy, we might at least get
paid. “Commercial rights,” he notes, “are better suited for the
multitude of quirky little situations that will come up in real life
than new kinds of civil rights along the lines of digital privacy.”
Following
Lanier’s logic, any correction in the market system — say, price
adjustments based on changing demand — would require that extra profits
be transferred to consumers. But should you expect a supermarket to send
you a check simply because you chose to buy one brand of milk over
another? Probably not. Why treat Amazon differently?
To some, the
very idea that our every decision is a piece of data to be monetized
might seem appalling — and rightly so. What exactly is “humanistic”
about Lanier’s vision? Its chief hero seems to be, to borrow a phrase
from philosopher Michel Foucault, an “entrepreneur of the self,” always
eager to cash in on some personal trivia.
The first step to dissolve any municipality of fewer than 2,500
residents requires a petition signed by both a majority of the
registered voters and the approval of the largest landowners. That
petition must then be presented to the Sorrento Town Council, which
would declare a special election.
Like the petition, the election would require a majority of voters weighted by property tax value.
I don't think I've ever heard of an election where the votes were "weighted by property tax value" before. In New Orleans, you get extra votes for stuff if you happen to be a university president or a hospitality lobbyist but that's a little bit different.
Update: By now I'm sure most people are aware Deb Cotton was among the 19(!) people injured. I'm sure she won't want this to be a story about her. But it is one that she has been closely familiar with for a while. I can't think of any individual whose work has done more to promote and celebrate the current generation of New Orleans backstreet parading culture than Deb has with her writing and videography. She very recently launched a new magazine site focused on music and street culture.
By now, also, I'm sure we're all aware that this story has made news around the whole world today. I'm a little puzzled as to why that is, exactly, although the bizarre phrasing of this AP report provides a hint.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in
a neighborhood Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding
at least 19 people, police said.
The FBI said the shooting appeared to be “street violence” and wasn’t linked to terrorism.
Nobody was worried some sort of international plot was at work but thanks for putting us at ease about that, I guess.
Not that anyone is at ease. Especially not the Mayor and Chief of Police now that violent crime in New Orleans is back in the international headlines. Here are somevideos of them saying tough guy things. Expect some sort of symbolic "action" within the next few days. Maybe more "NOLA4Life" ads.
In response to shootings that occurred at second lines in '06,
Superintendent Riley raised social aid and pleasure club parade permits
to six times their pre-storm amount of $1,200, a fee hike that was not
applied to White Mardi Gras clubs even though similar incidences of
shooting have occured during their parades such as the Muses parade in ’04, the Bacchus parade in ’07, and the Krewe of Crescent City parade in ’09. The ACLU fought and won several cases on behalf of the Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force and parade permits for the SAPCs were eventually reduced to $1,985.
The Fox news article is not an isolated incident of a bias reporter
getting it wrong. The local mainstream media in New Orleans has a long
history of racial bias against the Black community in general and second
line culture in specific. One would think that weekly parades which
tie up traffic in large swatches of the city for four hours at a time
would at the very least merit local media announcements of parade routes
and times. With the exception of this blog, which I published on
Nola.com before migrating it here to Gambit online, the local media by
and large ignores social aid and pleasure club culture - except in
instances when it attempts to equate second line parades with
lawlessness. In a city that has a majority Black population, it begs
the question of motivation behind the press’ wholesale omission in
coverage of a century old African American tradition that hosts annual
half day parades every Sunday for nine months out of the year. The fact
that these events rarely get positive coverage in the mainstream media
is consistent with the attitude of neglect and ostracism that catalyzed
these benevolent societies back in the 19th century with their mission
of providing assistance and resources to the Black community during
segregation.
Upperdate: More from Gambit here. It looks like they're planning to organize a benefit for the victims of today's shootings.
As long as we're going to make believe any of these tax credits are in real jeopardy here is the plan.
The new plan makes at least $63 million in tax break reductions, cuts
spending by more than $100 million and relies on state revenue
collections improving by $90 million.
Modifications would be made
to the motion picture tax credit program. The Jindal administration
would be urged to put an emphasis on collecting sales taxes on Internet
sales. Vendors would only be able to keep a portion of state sales tax
collections on the first $3 million in annual sales.
The new plan projects raising $200 million a year – of the $526
million it would bring in overall per year – by launching a tax amnesty
program that would last for nearly three years.
Budget experts question the plan.
“It’s a very risky way of balancing the budget,” said Jim Richardson,
a Louisiana State University economist who sits on the four-member
Revenue Estimating Conference that is about to meet to determine how
much of the higher-than-projected revenue collected by the state
Treasury can be spent. “I don’t see any way our conference can buy into
that figure without more information.”
“Any way you cut it, it’s one-time money,” said C.B. Forgotston, an
attorney and longtime budget expert whom the Fiscal Hawks have regularly
consulted. “It goes against what the Hawks have been preaching. It’s
also highly speculative. It’s a best guess of who will choose to pay.”
Under the amnesty program, people with outstanding tax bills could
pay without incurring penalties or interest they’d normally face, at
least for the first year.
Guess the anti-Jindal revolution wasn't all that big a thing after all.
Here's the latest on that Rube Goldberg style "barge gate" on the intracoastal waterway that was designed to just sit closed for 10-15 years at a time but then we later found out would have to be open and closed with alarming regularity.
The misjudged current tolerances have led the corps to declare that
the structure should be closed 96-hours – four days – before a storm is
expected to make landfall in the area.
“Basically, we’ll be closing this thing any time a tropical
disturbance or even a low-pressure system is in the Gulf,” Turner said.
“We’re not leaving anything to chance because the risk to the community
we’re protecting is simply too great.
“We’re going to keep working with the corps to get this all squared away before hurricane season” — which begins June 1.
Lewis called the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office and deputies closed off both sides of St. Bernard Highway from Mehle to Friscoville Avenues at about 1:30 p.m. The stretch of highway wasn't reopened until around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The
Sheriff's Office sent in a bomb robot that X-rayed its contents but
could not make a clear determination of what was inside. So, out of
precaution, deputies took the bag to a nearby vacant lot and safety
detonated it based on proper procedures.
Because the X-Ray vision cannot see through backpacks, the cops went ahead and set off an explosion... for safety. But, like I always say, you can never be too careful protecting Arabi's donut shops from disgruntled customers.
Lewis said the man had come in the last couple of days and "every day
there have been some problems" with him wanting "wanting a free drink,
or always something." On Wednesday, Lewis said that the man walked out
without paying his check "and then he leaves a bag and it made you
wonder."
NEW ORLEANS — Authorities are
investigating a suspicious device found on the side of the National
World War II Museum at 945 Magazine St., New Orleans police said in an
email.
Officer Garry Flot said SWAT team members have the device
and are trying to determine what it is. He said police used a robot to
get the device.
Once they determine what the device (shower radio, bicycle tire, turkey sandwich, whatever) might be, they plan to hold a public detonation later that afternoon along the riverfront. Citizens may attend the celebratory safety explosion ("Boom Boom en Blanc: Flashmob with a Flash" ) for a modest fee of $40 per person which will go toward funding the NOPD consent decree reform. If you are going, though, please leave your backpacks at home.
Jindal is probably going to end up with more or less the budget he wants. Or at least, a budget that protects most of the special tax privileges put in jeopardy by a proposed deal between Democrats and so-called Republican "Fiscal Hawks." Here's why.
The Fiscal Hawks-Democrats’ plan
released Monday night would produce $527 million by shaving nearly 30
tax exemptions by 15 percent apiece to raise $329 million, cutting
spending by more than $100 million and using higher-than-projected tax
revenue that the state treasury has collected. Doing this would
eliminate the one-time and contingency spending for annual expenses,
they say.
House Democrats overwhelmingly support the plan, by a 42 to 3 count,
according to one survey of their members Wednesday. But a tick sheet of
House Republicans from Tuesday night showed that the three-pronged
attack by Jindal, the business community and the state Republican Party
left only 25 votes in favor and 33 opposed.
“It would appear they’re getting pounded,” state Rep. John Bel
Edwards of Amite, the Democrats’ House leader. “We’re holding up our
side.”
I've been too busy to keep up the Yellow Blog as much as I'd like to lately. So there's a backlog of stuff I'm going to hang here over the next few days just so I'll have a halfway decent chance of remembering it later. (That's mostly the purpose of this blog, anyway.)
Payton spent his weekend at in Charleston, Ill., where he received an
honorary doctorate of public service from Eastern Illinois University,
his alma mater. The school had previously retired his No. 18 jersey in
2010.
This is memorable primarily because of the photo.
But also because I was momentarily baffled by the "Public Service" degree. It turns out that it has something to do with his charitable foundation which is nice, I guess, although I'm pretty sure every pro athlete and coach has one of some kind.
WASHINGTON -- Students taking out government loans to help pay for
college should pay the same rock-bottom interest rate that the Federal Reserve charges big banks, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed Wednesday.
So yesterday we learned that Hicham Khodr had just purchased his fifty ka-billionth restaurant on Magazine Street. Today we're finding out that he may have to deface an icon he already owned.
Camellia Grill,
a dining landmark on South Carrollton Avenue, may have to go by another
name after a recent court ruling that found the restaurant's owner in
breach of a licensing agreement.
On Wednesday, a civil district
appeals court ruled that the restaurateur, Hicham Khodr, lost the right
to use the Camellia Grill name and logo on the business that he bought
from Michael Shwartz in 2006.
Frankly, I've never been a huge fan of Camellia Grill. I know it has a certain sentimental value for deep Uptowners and probably for kids who first found it as Tulane students. But it's pretty much just another diner. And there are other, better diners in town.
It's not terrible, of course. And, for what you pay there, it's probably "worth it." But mostly what they're selling there is the name. Sucks for them if they can't sell that anymore.
Four leading reporters and editors from The Times-Picayune, including
Pulitzer Prize winners who covered Hurricane Katrina, signed up to work
for The Advocate Wednesday, a week after businessman John Georges bought
the daily newspaper and promised to beef up its operations in New
Orleans.
Aside from James Gill's and Jarvis Deberry's columns and the still quite robust sports coverage, I'm having a hard time coming up with much reason to look at the T-P anymore. The Advocate still has a long way to go to get to where it can cover as much ground as it needs to. It also needs a more active website with the capacity to post breaking news throughout the day.
Sooner or later John Georges is bound to do something screwy with his new toy but for now he's building a better one; one that looks like it's trying to be a serious newspaper. While he's doing that, I suppose it's worth supporting that effort with reservations.
As for the overall "state of journalism" or whatever in New Orleans, I think we're probably slightly worse off than we had been. There are still good people doing good reporting but it's reaching a more fragmented audience. I know there's some effort to mitigate that via resource sharing and "alliances" and stuff but it's not quite what it ought to be. Not yet anyway. Maybe a decent daily paper will help there.
Anyway, get ready for another 3-5 years of running these on bubblegum and duct tape. The contract to build the permanent structures has only just now been finalized.
New Orleans — A $614 million project to
build permanent canal closures and pumps to keep storm surge out of New
Orleans’ three outfall canals is expected to begin this fall, according
to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Until that work is finished,
interim closure structures built in 2006 will continue to be used to
protect the Orleans Avenue, London Avenue and 17th Street canals from a
100-year-level storm surge.
The work will take 45 months to
complete, according to the corps, meaning New Orleans will go through
several more hurricane seasons with the temporary pumps and structures,
which the corps has said have a limited lifespan.
Hurricane Season 2013 begins in less than a month. Time just flies, doesn't it?
Mahony's Po-boy Shop on Magazine Street has a new owner. Hicham Khodr, who also owns the Camellia Grill restaurants,
purchased the Uptown restaurant founded by Benjamin Wicks, who elevated
New Orleans' iconic sandwich using his fine-dining training, will stay
on as head chef.
Perhaps because they did not heed the advice of their witch doctor, the LA Supreme Court has ruled that Bobby Jindal's school voucher program which diverts public school funding to private schools which, in turn, may or may not offer anything like a 21st century science curriculum is not allowed under the state constitution.
Not that John White is deterred. He must have some extra change in his gris gris pouch he's not telling us about.
White has said he is confident that, even if vouchers were struck down, state officials will find a way to continue the aid.
He did not spell out specifics. White is in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.
Eric
Lewis, who is state director of the Louisiana branch of the Black
Alliance for Educational Options, which is a major backer of vouchers,
said he is confident the assistance will continue.
“Superintendent White has committed that the program is going to be funded,” Lewis said.
It's "State of the City Day." And since we're coming up on another citywide election cycle, expect Mitch to try out an early version of this year's campaign repertoire. Mitch's act is one part Y'at-ish twaddle and one part corporate sloganeering with just a pinch of condescending snark. Get ready to hear his One Voice coming out of your media devices more and more frequently over the next several months. If you can't make it to the show today, The Lens will "live-blog" the event here. There will probably be tweets from various folks as well so tune your dial appropriately.
The Mayor is sure to tout his "NOLA for Life" campaign to advertise the murder rate away. As we noted last week, it has now been six months since the father of "NOLA for Life" criminologist David Kennedy promised we'd see a "real difference" in terms of violent crime within that time frame. It will be interesting to see what statistical contortions the Mayor devises in order to demonstrate such progress.
One more thing regarding the go-cup issue. Last night (appropriate to the anniversary date, in retrospect) Crescent City Books hosted a talk by historian Lawrence Powell and geographer Richard Campanella. The two authors are responsible for the most widely cited and popular works on local history published recently. Both have new books coming out in the near future. Campanella's, I learned last night, will focus on Bourbon Street in particular. I believe this article is an outtake from that book.
In the course of the discussion last night Campanella dated the "go-cup" phenomenon to the advent of take-out windows on Bourbon Street during the 1970s. This is true insofar as it explains the popularity of drinking in the street on the Bourbon pedestrian mall. But I don't think it's fair to say that, prior to this development, you couldn't walk the neighborhoods with open containers of alcohol. Or at least, you probably weren't likely to be stopped and searched by Chief Serpas on your way home for the corner bar.
Heh: Just as I'm typing this today it turns out that Campanella is disputing that May 7 "birthdate"
@drmoore @mayorlandrieu My understanding is that work commenced on New Orleans in late March/early April 1718.May I ask where you got May 7?
— Richard Campanella (@nolacampanella) May 7, 2013
Well, whatever, it's good enough for Wikipedia. Anyway I'm pretty sure Bienville would have wanted to found the city on the same date that Mitch Landrieu begins his reelection campaign in earnest so why ruin that?
Happy Bithday, New Orleans. Only 290 or so more years to go before you're due for your next Superbowl win.
Here's a short and sweet analysis of the April jobs report that generated a slew of stupidly bright happy headlines last week. Here's the key statement... which you can basically repeat to one degree or another on any given month.
In general, workers are not doing well. The jobs being created are
mostly of poor quality. 19.5% of them are part time. Weekly hours and
wages declined last month. And the BLS continues to underestimate the
number of those without jobs by between 9 to 9.5 million.
Here, meanwhile, is an article from this week's Louisiana Weekly looking at a federally funded jobs training program associated with the ongoing work to expand streetcar service in New Orleans. The article raises some questions about the cost and structure of this particular program. But the more important item to note in big picture terms is this.
In data released in late April, New Orleans’ unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, was six percent in March, below the national average of 7.6 percent. But that masks a persistently high poverty rate that points to a need for job training. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 25.7 percent of people in Orleans Parish lived below the poverty level from 2007 to 2011, well above the national average of 14.3 percent.
Every day we are reminded somewhere in our often breathless local press of the presumed robustness of the "trend-bucking" entrepreneur-driven economic boomtimes we're currently enjoying here in New Orleans. While it's fair to say that some people are making money here right now, a far larger number are seeing the same stagnated prospects weighted against a steadily rising cost-of-living. In other words, the best of times are also the worst.
Furthermore it's worth pointing out just how much what growth we have experienced in New Orleans has been spurred directly by federal investment stemming either from post-Katrina rebuilding initiatives or from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The streetcar expansion is a good example of both the benefits of federal investment as well as the less than optimal scale and efficacy of its application.
Sooner or later (sooner than later) this money is going to run out. When that happens, we'll probably run out of articles about how we're all being lifted up by the "entrepreneurial spirit" as well.
While many of the neighbors in Bayou Corne have moved away in the
nine months since the Assumption Parish sinkhole formed across La. 70
South from their house, the Pipsairs have remained, in spite of a parish
evacuation order issued Aug. 3.
Rhett Pipsair, 50, the father of
two adult sons, said he has not evacuated because he has not been afraid
of the sinkhole since it formed.
About a month ago, however, gas started bubbling up underneath a deck in one corner of his oblong pond, Pipsair said.
“This
is making me think twice now that it’s in my own backyard,” Pipsair
said. “I mean I’ve been building this place for 23 years. I can’t just
up and leave, you know what I mean.”
Landrieu's one-page letter, by contrast, did not cite any specific
provisions of the food-trucks ordinance he considered objectionable.
Rather, it noted that the measure's chief sponsor, Councilwoman Stacy
Head, and a coalition of food-truck supporters had both suggested during
debate on the measure that some of its provisions might be found
unconstitutional if challenged in court.
Head, who said she
accepted the provisions as the price of getting the measure passed, is a
frequent political antagonist of the mayor's and -- some of his critics
hope -- a possible candidate against him when he runs for re-election
next year, though it seems more likely she will run again for the council, very possibly against a Landrieu-backed opponent.
Head and Mitch aren't very far apart on the policy aim in this case. But by having a "fight" over the reform Mitch just vetoed, they're likely to get an even more favorable ordinance for both of them in the long run. Just not this year.
Not that Eggler is wrong to point to the growing rivalry between these two. It's just that they're really not that substantively different. A mayoral election with both Head and Mitch on the ballot would split the currently ascendant but still precarious conservative white governing coalition. It's possible that both Head and Mitch are egotistical enough to carry on a tug-of-war over who gets to lead it. But they might not be so stupid as to indelicately rip it apart in the process.
I could be wrong about the food truck strategy but these are still things to think about as the 2014 stage gets set.
What should we do with the toll booths? Do we just leave them there as a cautionary memorial for future generations? Maybe they'd be an appropriate place for some terrible public art.
I was standing in line for coffee this morning with a group of people who were obviously in town for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Presented By Shell when I got to overhear yet another, "So what is chicory, anyway?" conversation. Usually when they ask this they want you to give them some canned performance built around some combination of these frequently-in-dispute factoids.
Many myths
surround the use of chicory in coffee blends. One story holds that
the root was accidentally found to be a flavorful additive to coffee
as far back as the sixteenth century. Chicory is made from the root
of the endive plant and was used as a filler and flavor enhancer in
parts of northern Europe at least as far back as the eighteenth century.
Napoleon's armies reportedly brought chicory back to France, where
Parisians began to prefer its taste and the thriftiness of adding chicory.
Since chicory could be grown in parts of Europe where coffee could
not, the root was obviously cheaper. How it made its way to the United
States is unknown. For many years it was used to stretch coffee supplies,
especially in hard times such as the Civil War. This practice upset
many purists, who disdained chicory and other additives. Somewhere
along the way, however, New Orleanians developed a taste for chicory
in coffee blends and many prefer it today. Throughout the New Orleans
area, chicory has been used as a flavor additive. Local coffee companies
have kept up with demand by offering the same blends with and without
chicory. Within the city, coffee and chicory are consumed in greater
quantities than anywhere else. Outside of the city, most coffee drinkers
imbibe pure coffee instead.
Chicory was first roasted and used in coffee in Holland around the year 1750. In a short period of time, it became a popular replacement for coffee. By 1785, James Bowdoin, the governor of Massachusetts had first introduced it to the United States. In 1806, Napoleon attempted to make France completely self-sufficient. To eliminate coffee imports, chicory was used as a complete substitute. While this system did not last more than a few years, the French
continued to use chicory to blend with their coffee. This practice would
migrate to the still French-influenced New Orleans and is still
considered the normal New Orleans-style of coffee.
One historical and cultural example of chicory's use as a coffee
substitute is found in New Orleans. Due in part to its influences from
French culture, New Orleans was a major consumer of coffee prior to the
Civil War. Then, in 1840, coffee importation to the New Orleans harbor
was blocked. Taking a cue from their French roots, locals began to use
chicory as a coffee substitute. Today, chicory remains a popular coffee
replacement or coffee flavoring in New Orleans, and 'New Orleans Coffee'
typically refers to chicory coffee. New Orleans coffee vendors often
blend their coffee with up to 30 percent chicory root.
So, depending on which resourceful, embattled, thrifty people you feel like romanticizing, the basic story is it's a root used as an additive to stretch coffee. Or make it taste better... or worse... again depending on the point of view of the storyteller.
In any case, it's definitely one of the more tiresome things tourists will ask you about and expect you to dance for them in the telling. But rather than just start punching people in the face I'm looking for new and less boring lies to tell them. Here's my new one. You see "chicory" isn't a root at all. Instead it's the flavor enhancing byproduct of this process.
The company, Houston-based W&T Offshore, admitted its workers had
used coffee filters in October 2009 to clean oil and other minerals out
of the water byproduct discharged overboard from their platform in the
Ewing Banks 910 lease block, about 65 miles south of Port Fourchon.
They were filtering the oil out of the water samples that were sent into a lab and recorded with the federal government.
Meanwhile, the water they were dumping back into the Gulf on a constant basis stayed contaminated.
We already know how much the oil industry enjoys describing contamination in food metaphors. Why not throw another one in there? At least this one is appropriately bitter which is bound to fit the mood of anyone whose had to pay the consequences of bucking such a system.
“When you’re in the offshore industry if you want to get along, you
better go along,” said Randy Comeaux of Lafayette, who was a contract
employee assigned to W&0T platforms in 2009. “And what happens
offshore stays offshore. You break any one of those two rules, in one
fashion or another, you will not be working offshore.”
Comeaux says he’s one of the few who doesn’t simply “go along,” and
he’s paid the price. He said he’s been fired multiple times for
reporting violations and can’t get a job offshore because of it.
The produced water with the chemicals is then discharged overboard
into the gulf of mexico waters. This produced water is basically salt
water , the chemicals are now hazardous waste which can only be
discharged in limited quantities, to allow the gulf waters to break them
down with time .
Fish , shrimp , crabs , oysters and a large multitude of seafood life
swim in these contaminated waters around the offshore platforms
consuming these contaminants.
These fish , shrimp , crabs , oysters and other seafood are then consumed by the people along the gulf coast and the entire US.
This is why it helps to look to our plucky ancestors for inspiration in times of hardship. Better to just make lemonade rather than worry about what's gone wrong with the lemons. In the next century maybe our descendents in the New Orleans Islands could be standing in line at the seafood automat fielding questions from tourists about the origins of the locals' peculiar love of Corexit as a condiment. Probably we'll tell them it adds aroma or something.
If I could wish for people to understand just one thing about how people try to manipulate them, it might be this:
The fact that something needed to be done does not and did
not mean that privatization was the sole or best answer to problems
that were not well-defined. Folks in the US like “change” and tend to
think “change” or “new” is better than “old” or certain statuses quo.
When the narrative is that the Bad Old System has been slain and
replaced with White Knights in Shiny Armor, it’s easy
to believe, especially the less contact you have with public schools and
the students and families and public education, that “change” has of
course meant “better.”
"Change" can be terrific or it can be horrible. But when they tell you any disagreement with a course of action can be reduced to a simple fear of "change" they are usually running a con.
Police initiatives have come and gone over the years, but New Orleans'
murder rate has remained frustratingly high. Now, the mastermind behind
the city's new murder-reduction strategy says the city could be seeing
fewer bodies on the ground within a matter of months.
Look, I'm not trying to be insensitive or flippant about tragic violence. I don't think there's an easy solution the police or the mayor can or even should pursue. Nevertheless they do pay these cynical consultants a lot of money to tell them where to put up billboards and stuff in order to look like they are doing something. Maybe they could spend that money more wisely. Like on getting the prison into compliance with the US Constitution or something.
Part of the theory behind a heavy police presence in high-crime
neighborhoods -- the zero-tolerance-for-crime approach, the focus on
cleaning up graffiti and fixing broken windows -- was to give the
law-abiding citizens of those neighborhoods confidence in the police and
a willingness to engage with the government in ways that might even
help them break out of the cycle of poverty.
But Weaver’s
interviews with residents of some of those neighborhoods suggest the
policy is backfiring, that residents – especially in neighborhoods where
police engage in a high-level of stops and searches of young men and
especially in neighborhoods where a high portion of those searches do
not find any contraband and do not result in arrests – create a mistrust
of the police and an unwillingness to engage with the government.
It has become a matter of course that we subject people to "Broken windows" strategies, crime cameras on every corner, and draconian behavioral rules like these.
Under current regulations, public housing residents or Section 8
voucher holders can face eviction or voucher termination if, for
example: a family member visiting them uses “abusive language” towards a
HANO employee; a visiting family member “abuses alcohol and disturbs
the peace”; or if they are judged guilty of “poor housekeeping.”
The cumulative effect is to tell people they're always under suspicion. Living under a constant threat is no way to live. It's no way to live a free and productive life, anyway.
“The stability of democracy depends on the losers, or least powerful, to
still believe they can enter the contest, to still abide by the same
system rather than seek to subvert it,” Weaver said.
But we're not really interested in democracy anymore. Just stability. And that's going to mean keeping an increasing number of isolated "losers" in line.
MinnPost link via The Lens daily summary which I probably don't need to tell you you should be checking out regularly.
I agree with him about how oppressively boring these fans can be.
The message boards immediately reacquainted me with two things I
already knew but hadn't really thought much about in a while. 1. The
only acceptable reaction to a Saints draft pick is rapturous applause,
and 2. Whatever remains in 21st Century America that stubbornly
continues to try to pass itself off as "society" has completely lost any
semblance of the concept of honest disagreement. "Viewpoints" are a
relic, these days there is only the person who is "right" and the person
who is an idiot. Good times. Or something.
And on Draft Day, the "idiot" is always the guy who doesn't understand
that the Saints ABSOLUTELY NAILED IT and it's all part of Payton and
Loomis's diabolical Master Plan. It's the same thing every year… "Oh, I
suppose you think you know better than Loomis and Payton, huh? Well then
why aren't YOU the GM of an NFL team?!?" Oh, for crying out loud, get
the fuck out of here with that weak shit.
If we're supposed to be so unconditionally supportive of everything
Loomis and Payton do, then why have YOU spent the better part of the
last decade screaming "When are they gonna bench/cut Shanle???" and/or
"Run the ball, Payton!!!" and on and on like that? Hell, we all just finished spending the better part of the last three months
lamenting "Why can't the Saints ever seem to find a defensive player in
the first round who isn't Just A Guy?" And now the Saints pick yet
another defensive guy in the first round and anybody who dares to
express the opinion that he might be yet another JAG is an idiot who
just doesn't get it? Sigh.
And that's why I stay away from the message boards. Better to stick with Twitter where everyone's either a critic or a comedian and no one can ramble on long enough to really get dump that much stupid on you even if they're Fletcher Mackel.
On the other hand, I disagree with Wang about the "spoiler" effect. I don't mind finding out what's happening from one source before it's confirmed by another two or three guys all before it gets dramatized by the clown puppets on ESPN. I don't watch that show for the suspense. I watch it to see what the idiots are saying. None of that is ruined by having the topics ahead of time. None of this stuff is real, anyway. No need to pretend it is in order to enjoy it.
Sen. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas, said he had reservations with
repealing the act after a spiritual healer correctly diagnosed a
specific medical ailment he had. He said he thought repealing the act
could "lock the door on being able to view ideas from many places,
concepts from many cultures."
"Yet if I closed my mind when I saw
this man -- in the dust, throwing some bones on the ground, semi-clothed
-- if I had closed him off and just said, 'That's not science. I'm not
going to see this doctor,' I would have shut off a very good experience
for myself," Guillory said.
But don't slam your head against the desk too quickly. At least your legislators are consistent in their endorsement of shamanism and all its accoutrements.
A Louisiana House committee debated for more than an hour Wednesday
before advancing legislation that would soften the penalties for
marijuana possession.
As for the non-magical thinkers still running loose in the Gret Stet, the gradual decriminalization of an intoxicant should at least soften the blow since the steady march away from modernity shows little sign of slowing.
Nearly 8,000 vouchers have been offered to students, up from about 5,000 last year, state officials said Wednesday.
Yes, the vouchers have been declared unconstitutional, but that's being appealed to the witch doctors on the state supreme court where the signs portend a more favorable ruling.
Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a “hero” and boomed, “He won the
war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I
believe, except a few critics.” He added: “Women like a guy who’s
president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having
a hero as our president. It’s simple.”
PBS’ Gwen Ifill said Bush was “part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan.”
On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, “The pictures were beautiful. It was
quite something to see the first-ever American president on a—on a
carrier landing.”
Bob Schieffer on CBS said: “As far as I’m concerned, that was one of
the great pictures of all time.” His guest, Joe Klein, responded: “Well,
that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman
played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me.”
Gee aren't those three individuals embarrassed. Guess they'll always regret the day they threw away their credibility glorifying the bloodiest obvious hypocrisy of the decade.
Aw I'm just joshing with you, of course. Those people are still fabulously wealthy, successful, and respected voices in political journalism. In their business you can never go broke sucking up to money and power
In a letter to the City Council clerk Peggy Lewis, Landrieu said he was
concerned parts of the law might be unconstitutional. The letter states
the ordinance's author, who is Councilwoman Stacy Head, and the
reforms' "principal proponent" acknowledged that the law was
unconstitutional. Additionally, the City Attorney indicated to the mayor
that the law wouldn't pass a legal challenge, the letter states.
NEW ORLEANS – City attorney Richard Cortizas will step
down next week, after serving nearly three years in Mayor Mitch
Landrieu’s administration, City Hall announced Friday.
According to a city statement, Cortizas’ last day will be May 3. The
city says Cortizas will pursue family business interests and take a
position with the city’s largest law firm, Jones Walker.
Sharonda Williams, who serves as Chief Deputy City Attorney for
Litigation, will be promoted to City Attorney, the mayor’s office said.
Maybe Mitch is saying the incoming City Attorney thinks the food truck law has constitutional issues. Did anyone ask her? Also, what did we ever find out what Cortizas' reason for leaving is in the first place? Surely it isn't over something as silly as food trucks.
John Georges, who took over a small family company and transformed it
into a billion-dollar business, completed a deal Tuesday to buy The
Advocate, the largest daily newspaper in Louisiana.
I guess this helps put the TPStreets fiasco in context. NOLA Media Group must have figured they had to do something to compete with Georges' apparent plan to expand The Advocate's presence in New Orleans. Maybe that's not so bad since that means putting more of the former T-P staff back to work. But it also means they're all working for John Georges. Good for them. Probably not so good for us.
Al Copeland's survivors are negotiating with Jefferson Parish officials to erect a statue of the late fried chicken king in Lafreniere Park. The Parish Council is scheduled Wednesday to vote on an agreement letting the family pay to build a performance stage in the Metairie
park, along with an "arched entryway" and "a paved and brick walkway
leading to the Al Copeland Memorial Statue," according to public
records.
The idea evolved from an overture that the Copeland
family made in February to the Lafreniere Park Advisory Board, board
Chairman Ginger Crawford said Tuesday. The initial proposal was for
pedestal supporting a life-sized statue of the flamboyant businessman
holding a box of Popeye's fried chicken and a checkered racing flag, a
speedboat at his feet, all set amid columns.
There is a sketch of the proposed statue at the top of that article which you really must see. According to follow-up statements from JP Councilman Ben Zahn and from the Copeland family, the design is still very much open to discussion. I think someone today suggested they find a way to incorporate some Christmas lights.
In any case, I really do hope they keep the columns. There really is nothing that could be more exactly Al Copeland than that.
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune will launch an additional print
publication that will appear three times a week on newsstands beginning
this summer. TPStreet, focusing on breaking news, sports and
entertainment, will appear in a tab-size format, publishing on Mondays,
Tuesdays and Thursdays. The new publication will cost 75 cents.
You have to hand it to Ricky Mathews et al for showing some robust balls here. "Here's yer goddamned print edition, suckers!" they seem to say as they open their browsers to NOLA.com and mash down on the Control and P keys. No, they won't deliver copies of TPStreets to home subscribers. That's just how much they think of it.. or of you. Shouldn't you be greeting them at the gate as liberators, anyway?
Besides just having the thing show up on your doorstep takes away the fun of the hunt.
Did you find TPStreets on your corner this morning? Send a pic in to NOLA.com today! You should be able to distinguish the fun-size paper from The Advocate which is (still) (sort of) an actual newspaper. Though, you might end up mistaking it for The New Orleans Street Exchange which is not.. although it is an actual street paper which TPStreet is not. Got it? No? OK well maybe look for the one with the free 8 pack of Crayolas or the package of Famous Amos attached. That's probably it.
If you're lucky you'll pick up one of five TPStreetses each month that contain coveted Golden Tickets. The Tickets are good for a ride on the Great Glass Elevator at Canal Place. It will take you up to the NOLA Media Group offices where the tour will show you the machine that shrinks newspapers by breaking them into a million little pieces and beaming them onto small screens.
Like this but with a more obnoxious child making the decisions.
For preservationists, it is their finest hour; their most unambiguous victory over the most demonstrably evil (in their minds, anyway) machinations of short-sighted development. And they allow this moment of righteousness, their big win in the Good War, to inform an almost reactionary revulsion to every and any big project that comes along.
But the Good War wasn't all that great if you happened to be on the wrong side of the atom bomb. And that's still how they feel in 7th Ward where Claiborne Avenue was eventually sacrificed to the interstate once the French Quarter was made off limits.
Long gone oaks memoralized with Faux Oaks (Foaux?)
There the elevated expressway has settled into the mythology as the primary cause of every symptom of urban decline to befall the area ever since. Never mind that crime, under-employment, and general disinvestment in education and social services have plagued the entire city, and every city in the nation, for half a century. In the 7th Ward, everything begins and ends with that damn highway.
This is not to say that they don't have a right to complain. The expressway may not be the root of all evil, but its placement sure didn't helped matters. But regardless of its actual impact, to the people who live in its wake, it's a constant reminder to them that big decisions aren't made with them in mind.
Interestingly, both of these not-entirely-true narratives come into play as we start to hear rumblings about the expressway being torn down and the "Claiborne Corridor" queued for "revitalization." The preservationist crowd will see it as an opportunity to make reparations for the collateral damage they inflicted in the course of their holy war to save the French Quarter. And, no doubt, there will be support from residents eager to finally slay the dragon expressway that trampled over their neighborhood.
Hopefully, though, enough of us will be able to view the next "battle" in its own context rather than through the obfuscating fog of the last war. Lovell Beaulieu (imperfectly) pokes through some of it in a recent Tribune column about the planning process.
Another
similar streetcar line is now being planned for North Rampart and St.
Claude avenues. That line, which has now journeyed from the planning
stages to an imminent reality, will take riders from the city’s downtown
theaters and shops all the way into the Bywater, Marigny and Holy Cross
neighborhoods.
The new Rampart line did not go unnoticed by key people in attendance.
“This is
just another thrill ride for tourists,” stated Jacques Morial, who lives
a block from the interstate and who is determined to make sure that the
communities that bore the brunt of urban decay with the highway
construction in the 1960s aren’t left holding more broken promises after
its planned demolition.
Morial
pointed out how the Interstate that was built in the 1960s devastated
the 6th and 7th wards from a cultural standpoint, as well as having a
spillover effect on the 8th. When those decisions were made, African
Americans had little if any political clout, and even less economic
sway. Now, the conversation continues to happen behind closed doors, and
it all adds to the negative perception and reality of the Livable
Claiborne Communities conversation.
“Nothing without us is for us,” said Morial.
Our current Mayor is fond of catchy slogans. One of his favorites, and probably the most pernicious, goes, "One Team One Fight One Voice One City," as if civic governance is something we should liken to a football game where all the residents are always on the same "team." There are many lies in this condescending little chant. The most obvious question it always raises in my mind is, how can we have a "fight" with only one "team" participating?
Of course a city contains many different voices, many opposing teams participating in many fights and the outcomes have real winners and real losers. That's just politics. To pretend otherwise is to deny the losing side of these every day struggles, not only the material spoils, but also the recognition due anyone with a valid but opposing argument. In other words, the Mayor is telling you that when you are priced out of your neighborhood by "revitalization" or an expressway is built on top of your house, it isn't because you lost an argument to a different "team." It's because, you actually never existed at all.
But there are winners and loser in every "Battle of New Orleans." If the life and times of the Claiborne Expressway serve as an object lesson in anything, certainly this should be it.
Prologue: One day before Tharold Simon Day in his hometown of Eunice, LA, the former LSU corner managed to get himself arrested.
“Tharold was out celebrating the draft with some of his friends, and things got out of hand,” Dies said.
When
the officer learned the vehicle was Simon’s, he approached Simon and
asked him to move the vehicle. Simon did not cooperate initially and
began talking disrespectfully to the officer.
“I own Eunice,” Simon told the officer, according to Eunice Police. “You are going to be mine.”
Oh dear. Eunice isn't the most valuable property to own on the Monopoly board, by the way. Simon might have been better off with the get out of jail free card in this case.
He ended up going to Seattle in Round 5 so the arrest didn't affect his draft stock all that badly. As an object lesson, though, this might not be the best example to follow.
The last time the Saints brought in a first-round pick into an
already clogged position group was in 2011 when the team traded back
into Day 1 to take running back Mark Ingram. Reggie Bush became the
odd-man out months later, but responded shortly after the Ingram pick
via Twitter, "It's been fun New Orleans."
Neither Jenkins, nor Harper responded in a Bush-like fashion Thursday night after the Saints selected Vaccaro:
"Ya'll welcome @kennyvaccaro4 to the fam!! I think that was a solid pick! Lets get it ... Who Dat!!," Jenkins said via Twitter.
"Want to welcome my new teammate @KennyVaccaro4 to #WhoDatNation," Harper said via Twitter.
“I’m going to build my mom a nice little house somewhere in Texas,”
Vaccaro said. “I don’t think she wants to stay in Brownwood anymore.
That’s about it. I’m going to save my money.”
Last year’s No. 15 pick Bruce Irvin signed a 4-year, $9.34 million
contract. That’ll serve as a good barometer for Vaccaro’s expected
windfall.
“I’m going to invest a lot in my family, just sit on it, and in about
10 years or whenever I can go travel or something,” Vaccaro said.
If you’re not excited now, a quick glance at pre-draft bios should change that.
Armstead, a 6-foot-5, 306-pounder, opened eyes with a 4.71 40-yard
dash and benched 215 pounds 31 times at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
Even more impressive – he chose Arkansas-Pine Bluff over major
colleges because the head football coach allowed him to participate in
track and field.
He started 37 games at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, including his final 32
games. He was a FCS first-team All-American in 2012 as well as his
third-straight All-SWAC honor.
Armstead's 40 time compares well with Vaccaro's 4.63, by the way. He probably won't start as a rookie, but he does offer the Saints an opportunity to bring back that tackle eligible formation they were so fond of a few years back. Saints fans have been demanding that Zach Streif's missed opportunity for glory be made right. Perhaps Armstead is the man to do the job.
"I put the work in every day and every week. I just feel like it's my
time. ... I feel like I can go out there and do some great things
with the opportunities I'll be given, and I know I'm going to make the most of
it. With every little glimpse I had in New Orleans, I did great things. If I'm
getting more than six and seven carries a game, the sky is the limit for me."I can do some great things and put up some crazy numbers in New York."
This trade stings for Saints fans. Granted, a good portion of Ivory's lack of opportunity on the field is related to his inability to stay healthy. But when he's out there, he looks like the most special talent of anyone in that "crowded backfield." In trading Ivory, the Saints are choosing to commit to the largely disappointing Mark Ingram instead. Right now, there isn't much public confidence in that decision.
“I don’t
mind being a Saint, I’m kind of happy though to be honest with you. I
was down there when I went to junior college and I got accustomed to
that area. I was down in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area, so I know a
lot of people and supporters out there that I get to see again.”
What’s the journey been like to go from the gulf coast to now playing for the New Orleans Saints?
“It
was a journey, but at the end of the day it was a blessing, a true
blessing, a road of…I can’t even describe right now I’m so breathtaken
right now, let me just gather my thoughts really quick. It’s crazy. As
a child when you start playing this sport, you think that you want to
be a professional athlete and then it’s just a dream but when it comes
true, it’s like wow, I can’t believe this is happening right now. I’m
just caught up in the moment. To answer your question, to be honest
with you, I never thought the dream of being in the NFL would actually
happen, I just tried to seize every moment I had, every step I took.
Going to Gulf Coast, I never thought I would be playing for a big time
school, going to Georgia I never thought I would be going to the NFL. I
just seized the moment every chance I was able to playing big games and
being around my teammates, that’s all I thought, that was my
mentality.”
Did you know how much the Saints were interested in you?
“To
be honest with you, I knew Coach (Bill) Johnson was really interested
in me. I talked a lot to him at the Senior Bowl and I talked to him
quite a bit at the combine. To be honest with you, after that, we
really didn’t talk, but I knew that he was interested in me. After I
got an understanding about how the process works, how people didn’t want
to deal cards like a chess match or a poker game so to speak, I knew
that some teams, like Coach Johnson, I could sense that he was really
interested in me and he told me he wanted to come get me. It was a
blessing and I’m glad he came and got me to be honest.”
To be honest with you, it's kind of nice to know that Jenkins doesn't mind being a Saint. We're glad he took the time to say so since, at 359 pounds, we figure it isn't that unusual for a person to be "breathtaken." And we've got to hand it to the Saints as well. It takes a lot of nerve for them to trade up for a big fat defensive tackle from Georgia given the whole Jonathan Sullivan experience, to be honest.
Round 4: A moment of silence in memory of Chris Ivory. Screw you, Roger Goodell. Moving on.
LSU running back Jeremy Hill was arrested early Saturday in connection
with a fight at an LSU-area bar that left a man unconscious, arrest
records show.
Maybe Hill was inspired by Simon's having emerged from a brush with the law relatively unscathed, but his situation might be a bit different.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said
Saturday that based on what he knows about the incident, he is not sure
if Hill violated the terms of his probation.
“If there is a new
criminal violation that he is found guilty of or if there is some
violation of the probation that was imposed, it could have an impact of
his sentence,” Moore said.
So, you know, the world continues turning in Baton Rouge.
[talented RB at LSU] has [done something stupid] and if booted will be replaced by [another talented RB who will do stupid things]
— edsbs (@edsbs) April 27, 2013
"I have a pessimistic outlook to everything, so I told my family I
didn't expect to go (in the draft on Friday during the second or third
rounds)"
Stills gets points for that one. But then he loses points for going on to talk about his faith in "God's plan" for him. Unless he means Old Testament God's plans, because those do, in fact, tend to engender a pessimistic outlook.
Loomis said during his Saturday afternoon post-draft press conference that defensive end Sedrick Ellis, wide receiver Devery Henderson and linebacker Scott Shanle probably wouldn't be part of the team's plans in 2013.
They'd better hope that Stills pans out in this case. Because, without Devery, this team is pretty thin at receiver. (Despite this, I think Devery is still even odds to be back. Payton spoke before Loomis and sounded more open to it than this.)
Weird: After the draft, the Saints signed Tulane Quarterback Ryan Griffin as a free agent. Griffin apparently was inspired by this to get on Twitter for the first time ever.
Griffin recently opened up a twitter account and has only one tweet,
which he typed out Saturday evening from his home in Westlake Village,
California: "WHO DATTTTTT!!!!!"
Griffin graduates with several Tulane passing records, which may or may not be worth anything. But to finish college in 2013 with just one career tweet... that's just weird.
Epilogue: There were a school record nine LSU players drafted over the weekend.
"It feels great, amazing," said the 5-foot-10, 215-pounder
from Leesville, who passed on his senior season. "At the same time it was
disappointing. They said I have a chance to compete for the No. 2 job. I just
have to go up there and work hard, I just want to play football."
Backup running back in Chicago probably pays "significantly" more than it does at LSU where you're mostly paid in gratitude. The gratitude is commonly expressed in various challenges to bar fights. So it sounds like Ford comes out ahead provided he makes the team. If not, maybe Simon will let him borrow Eunice from him on the weekends when he isn't using it.
Also, screw you, Roger Goodell. You are just the worst.
