Hooverism

 A few months ago I posted some notes on a couple of semi-recent books, one of which was Ages of American Capitalism by Jonathan Levy.  One of the main takeaways from that book for me was the extent to which Herbert Hoover's ideology of the "associational state" continues to dominate the policy program of both political parties to this very day.  What that entails at its essence is: 1) an accession to the holders of concentrated wealth and their perogative to decide how capital should be allocated. 2) hoping that those decisions will sometimes accrue to the greater good if our elected representatives in government ask nicely.  Here's the same quote I pulled the last time I brought this up. 

On the telephone and at two White House conferences, the president personally pleaded with the corporate executives of the largest, most regulated industries to increase capital investment expenditures. In 1930 railroads and utilities obliged. Yet everywhere else, especially in residential construction, fixed investment kept falling. Hoover recognized that during the 1920s, corporate profits had run ahead of wages, and he believed that high wages would stabilize spending, a good thing. “The first shock,” he declared, “must fall on profits and not wages.” Whether because of Hoover’s promptings or not, the nation’s largest employers agreed not to slash wages, even as they continued to fire their less desirable employees, a pattern that would persist. Proudly, Hoover said the agreements were, “not a dictation or interference by the government with business.” Rather they were the result of “a request from the government that you co-operate in prudent measure to solve a national problem.” The president boasted, “This is a far cry from the arbitrary and dog-eat-dog attitude of the business world of some thirty for forty years ago.” Hoover believed his “associational state” transcended the Jacksonian sphering of public and private, state, and market, which under the banner of equal commercial opportunity, had withered state action throughout the Age of Capital. But he drew one line in the sand. He would not coerce capitalists to invest. 

To make the point about how little things have changed, I highlighted this statement from Joe Biden  shortly after Hurricane Ida. Biden publicly asked insurers and utitlity companies to please not exploit their policy holders and ratepayers in the wake of the disater.  

“I’m calling on the insurance companies at this critical moment. Don’t hide behind the fine print and technicality. Do your job. Keep your commitment to your communities you insure,” he continued. “Do the right thing. Pay your policy holders what you owe them to cover the cost of temporary housing in the midst of a natural disaster. Help those in need. That’s what all of us need to do.” 

Biden also expressed that, throughout the week, he’d expressed that same message to local officials and utility and energy company representatives during virtual meetings.

Like Hoover, however, Biden did not take any extraordinary steps to compel them.  

The reason I bring this up again today is because we read in this morning's news that a "frustrated" Governor Jeff Landry is taking a similar approach with Louisiana's out of control insurance rates. 

Landry, a Republican who took office in January, has convened lawmakers for three special sessions – on redistricting, crime and taxes – but hasn’t convened one for the insurance crisis.

In an interview, Landry said he’s open to holding another special session on insurance, but he has not seen a package of bills that would fix the problem. He called on insurers to offer up solutions that would lead to savings for homeowners.

The article goes on to point out that there are things the state could do in a legislative session to take on the problem. The easiest and least radical of these would be requiring insurers to discount homeowners who take advantage of a state subsidized fortified roof program.  (Those roof grants could be bolstered as well.) Alli pointed out last week that coastal Alabama's success at controlling insurance costs (relative to the rest of the Gulf South) is at least partially attributable to its fortified roof program. 

But so far, Landry would prefer that insurers "offer up solutions" themselves.  He does sound mad, though. 

Landry said he’s miffed that the package of bills pushed by the insurance industry that he signed in the spring hasn’t brought relief yet.

“I feel completely frustrated,” Landry said. “It leads me to believe the things the insurance companies told the commissioner of insurance, told the lawmakers, don’t seem to be coming to fruition.”

He means the package of bills that he himself signed at a high profile press event this spring.  The explicit purpose of those laws was to give insurance companies more power to raise rates and drop coverage without penalty. Could anyone have predicted this program would not produce fantastic results for Louisiana residents?  The Governor sure didn't.  Now he says he's miffed. Maybe someone should do something. Not him, though. Someone.  

While Temple supported bills to limit insurance companies’ exposure to lawsuits, Landry, who has support from prominent members of the trial bar, said insurers wouldn’t get sued if they didn’t delay and fight claims made by homeowners. And the governor said he’s open to a federal solution to the insurance crisis, given the global nature of the business that ties Louisiana premiums to reinsurers in London and Bermuda.

Gonna have to wait until we hear back from President Musk on that one.  In the meantime, we'll go back to asking the insurers to come up with solutions for us.  Maybe if we get them a nice Christmas card or something. 

Again, they are just messing with you

They just passed new laws that say insurance companies don't actually have to, you know, provide insurance. 

Gov. Jeff Landry on Tuesday signed a series of bills that make it easier for insurance companies to drop policyholders, raise rates and have more time to pay claims after a storm, a controversial plan that aims to attract more companies to the state.

Hilariously, they say this is supposed to make it easier for you to buy insurance. It won't.  But more importantly, they don't actually believe that anyway.  What they do believe in is holding a big public signing ceremony for this farcical legislation just to rub it in everyone's face. In addition to ripping you off and putting your home in danger, they are also messing with you. Seems bad.

Turns out they will have to figure in a way to bribe the legislators too

At first they didn't think they'd have to.  Technically the legislature doesn't have direct authority over whether or not the sale goes through. But the way lawmakers were talking before the hearing was starting to make everybody feel back. So, back to the drawing board. For now, anyway. 

Hours before regulatory hearings in Baton Rouge were set to begin Wednesday, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana officials said they were shelving plans for a controversial $2.5 billion sale to Elevance Health.

In a statement early Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Insurance said, “Late yesterday evening, Blue Cross notified the LDI that it has chosen to withdraw its Plan of Reorganization. The hearing scheduled for today and tomorrow is therefore canceled."

It’s the second time in less than a year that the Baton Rouge-based nonprofit has tabled its plan to sell itself to the for-profit Elevance, one of the nation’s largest insurers, amid steep opposition from doctors, hospitals, some policyholders and state lawmakers.

I'm sure they'll be back. 

The bribes have been negotiated and they are surprisingly small

I think I said this around this time last year, but I really have got to get back to posting here (or writing longer form in some other way) more often. It's the only way I'm going to be able to keep track of the things that happen and hold them in my mind for any longer than it takes to flush them down Elon's Twitter toilet. 

For example, yesterday when I read this story about the deal Elevance and Blue Cross are offering Jeff Landry and Tim Temple so that they will bless the non-profit insurer's sale to the for-profit company, I thought, oh look, all it took was a just a couple of little bribes. They really bought them off cheap.

Many of the major elements of the proposed acquisition are largely unchanged from the original proposal announced in January. The sale price remains the same, as does the percentage of the sale's proceeds that will go to Blue Cross' 92,000 official policyholders.

But the new deal includes changes to the nonprofit foundation that will be formed as part of the transaction and is set to receive 91% of the sale's proceeds. The Accelerate Louisiana Initiative will now have an expanded board of directors that includes an appointee of Gov.-elect Jeff Landry. It will also include a nonvoting "observer" appointed by newly elected Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple.

But it took me a while to be reminded that I'd already flagged this in September when the writing was on the wall about Landry and Temple's intentions prior to the election.  This happens to me all the time now. If I don't deliberately stop and write about something, I'm liable to lose it. I try to keep little notes in draft but it's not the same. There's something about completing the thought here that makes it stick. There's just been less time lately to finish thoughts. That can't be good.

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a post about me. Elevance is about to take over the state's largest insurer in a deal that will make some very wealthy administrators even wealthier. Meanwhile, Blue Cross policyholders are facing a precarious future. But hey, I'm sure that $3,000 will make up for it. 

Blue Cross first announced the deal with Elevance nearly a year ago. But as the deal came under closer scrutiny before its approval by regulators, critics expressed concerns about the effect of the sale on customers and questioned the structure of the foundation.

Two reports by independent consultants prepared for state regulators raised questions about some of the deal assumptions. More recently, a Metairie attorney has filed a suit in federal court seeking class action status on behalf of the 92,000 policyholders, arguing that as members of the mutual indemnity company who have paid into it over the years, they, not the foundation, are entitled to the sale proceeds.

Under the terms of the current deal, policyholders will split some $276 million, receiving approximately $3,000 each.

Why does Tim Temple hate Metaire?

Louisiana's next Insurance Commissioner is preparing to ascend to that office next year without having had to campaign for it.  No one ran against him for the open seat (Jim Donelon decided he didn't want it anymore) and so voters haven't really had to think about him much yet.  Would you like to meet him now? His name is Tim. 

Hailing from DeRidder, Tim Temple has been working in the insurance industry for 20 years, with the last 13 years of that as an insurance executive, like his father did before him. There is really little to remark upon about his resume – he was presumably very successful in these ventures, donating nearly $2 million to his two campaigns (about $900,000 in 2019 and $950,000 this year). But otherwise, he seems to be a case of an insurance man interested in becoming The Insurance Man.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to know about Temple is that he also served as the chairman and president of the Committee of 100. While that may sound like a secretive organ of the Chinese Communist Party, it is in fact just another “good government” business and industry nonprofit group that advocates for “economic development.” But it is a useful context; Temple is not some wealthy political outsider who has elbowed his way into power over the wishes of the usual interests. He is firmly enmeshed in that crowd, and has simply ascended from “interested party” to decision maker.

And he has begun to lay out the sort of agenda you might expect from someone running in those circles. Temple’s main solution to Louisiana’s insurance market woes? A special session early next year, to push more deregulation, more tort reform, and more incentives for competition.

Our state is one of several right now that exist on the front lines of an acute insurance crisis. Fewer insurers are willing to write affordable policies in the places seen as most obviously vulnerable to climate change. There's an air of inevitability to that. But the shape of the crisis, though, and the shoulders that bear the worst of its costs are all entirely the result of policy choices. Political leaders at the state, local, national and international levels consistently move to outsource climate to private finance.

 

The least powerful individual victims of the system are purposefully left to absorb the consequences. 

Energy bills in New Orleans are rising at the fastest rate in almost two decades, and outpacing increases in the rest of the country.

Despite living in one of America’s most climate-vulnerable and poorest cities, it is still almost impossible for low-income residents such as Jones to reduce their “carbon footprint”. It’s not easy making green choices when public transit options are limited, and where tax incentives for solar panels and electric vehicles have largely excluded low-income households.

“I would love to get my house weatherized. I’d consider an EV if it was affordable – or even giving up my car. But the public transit here is draconian,” said Jones, a volunteer community activist. “Tax rebates don’t help me, because I don’t file taxes. They make it so hard to do the right thing.”

Climate scientists are clear that the world must transition away from fossil fuels immediately if it has any chance of avoiding the most catastrophic climate effects.

In recent years, the fossil-fuel industry and its allies have pushed the notion that personal choices are to blame for the climate crisis, while at the same time lobbying for policies to ensure their products – and profits – continue to expand.

Americans in every income category have bigger carbon footprints than their counterparts in almost all other G20 nations, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) data shared with the Guardian. But carbon inequality in the US is a complex situation which for many people – particularly those on a low income – has little to do with personal choice.

Tim Temple is fine with all this.  In this interview with Stephanie Grace, he says his main goal is to deregulate the insurers. Maybe then, they will be nicer.  Actually he didn't even promise that. Here he basically says that if you expect affordable insurance rates in Metairie you are shit out of luck and it's your fault for living there

Grace: So I guess the flip side of being able to charge the rates they need is very high prices for customers — perhaps unaffordable.

Temple: It certainly can be. There seems to be an underlying current of well, it's got to be fair: If I, as a consumer, want to go and build a home in the middle of a forest that's 26 miles away from the nearest fire hydrant, or if I want to build my home on the Gulf Coast 10 feet from the ocean, that I should have some type of affordable insurance.

I mean, we don't want it to be a government-funded, socialized type of product. What it needs to be is if you want to exercise your right to build where you are legally allowed to build, then you have to know upfront it may cost you more to build that house on the Gulf Coast than it does to build it in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Grace: When you're talking about the Gulf Coast, are you talking about down in the marsh, or in, say, Metairie?

Temple: Metairie, you can argue, is dang near the Gulf Coast. If you've ever flown into the New Orleans airport, you know that. Again, the concept is to create an environment where companies can come in and be treated at least not any worse than Texas or Florida treats their companies.

Metaire. People shouldn't live there.

All clear for profit taking

 Election's over. No longer any reason to pretend anyone will stand in the way of Elevance. 

Baton Rouge-based Blue Cross officials notified the Louisiana Department of Insurance in late September it was withdrawing its application for the necessary state approval of the deal. The pause came amid growing concerns from policyholders, local politicians and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is now governor-elect.

At the time, the company said it would refile its application with the state later this year or in early 2024.

Landry had expressed concerns about whether the deal was in the best interest of the policyholders and had said he thought the incoming Commissioner of Insurance, Tim Temple, a new governor and a new crop of state legislators should be in office before a deal of such magnitude is approved.

More than 1.9 million people in Louisiana have some form of Blue Cross health insurance. Of those, some 92,000 are policyholders.

Good luck, everybody!

Cycling insurance subsidies

These little emergency patches to the failed market are going to keep happening. This one is about to happen twice, in fact. 

Donelon said he will ask the legislature to approve more cash for a second round of grants during the regular legislative session set to convene on April 10.

Insurance companies who get grant money have to match the value of the grant dollar-for-dollar and write twice the sum of that amount in premium every year. For example, if one company received a $10 million grant, it would contribute an additional $10 million in surplus funds and be responsible for writing $40 million in premiums every year in south Louisiana parishes.

Donelon noted on Friday that the program was all but a "verbatim repeat" of a grant initiative spearheaded after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the state in 2005. This time, though, insurers are not required to take policies directly from Louisiana Citizens.

Each time the new emergency turns the ratchet, the subsidies only "incentivize" insurers to remain in the market. But they do so at newly increased rates and less favorable terms for policyholders. So the true effect of each rescue plan is just gradual acclimation to ever-worsening circumstances.  

Maybe it should be the job of the democratically elected Insurance Commissioner to figure out a better solution to all of this.  But that seems hard. And, really, who even wants that job anymore?

What are they even doing there

Your state Insurance commissioner telling us what kind of discrimination is fair and whatnot

For all those who asked yesterday, here's the video of Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon saying "Gender discrimination is fair discrimination." #lagov #lalege pic.twitter.com/GliCLaUxYz

— Eric Holl (@FrederickHoll) May 13, 2020

Donelon was there to testify on behalf of this ridiculous "tort reform" bill intended to shield insurance companies from liability. Republicans have insisted that, despite the raging pandemic and deepening economic depression, this issue is actually the number one priority of the 2020 legislative session. The law, they say, is just not fair to their constituents... by which they mean the insurance companies ripping you off.

Supporters say the way Louisiana courts handle cases seeking recompense for injuries in car wrecks differs from the rest of the country and is the cause for the state having the highest average rates.

“The ways our laws are set up, it’s not a fair system,” said state Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette and sponsor of HB9. He said several times that he consulted widely with insurance companies while putting together his bill.

Opponents point out that no data backs up those savings claims. In fact, an empirical look at the proposal found little, if any, impact on rates. The only thing the Omnibus Premium Reduction Act of 2020 is sure to do is to limit injured people’s access to the courts and to lower the damages they could collect if they prevail.

The real shame of the pandemic is that keeping up with the ongoing horror movie we're living in is too much of a distraction from the farce of this session.  The legislators really shouldn't even be here right now.  A more sane and much safer plan would have had them get together (preferably by remote or at least with their dang masks on) to pass the 18 or so constitutionally required bills, including a standstill budget that could be amended later when the economic forecast and prospects for federal aid are more clear.

Instead they are tackling very important matters such as sports betting or banning the use of highly dangerous weapons such as cell phones (but definitely not guns.) And, of course, there is this "tort reform" scheme which, Donelon even admits, isn't likely to do what Repulican legislators claim it will.  The reason it likely won't work is because insurers can ask him to keep it from working.

Both bills also require insurance companies to reduce rates by 10% if their costs go down, unless they can prove to the insurance commissioner that the rate reduction would hurt their business enough to stop selling polices in Louisiana.

While having near identical language in the two bills is probably persuasive in the supporters’ efforts for winning the debate, under the rules, both chambers are going to have to approve a single bill before the legislation heads to the governor’s desk. The session has 19 more days before adjournment.

Donelon acknowledged that he could not be sure that the companies will actually reduce rates by a specific amount.

Landry pointed to language in the bill which said that insurance companies can ask the insurance commissioner to not lower rates by 10%. Donelon said he would insist on the 10% reduction unless doing so threatened an insurance company’s insolvency.

And we already know from the video above that Donelon has a good grip on what kinds of practices keep insurance companies solvent. So he knows what he is doing. 

Also tort reform is, once again, becoming a major Republican priority in state housed across the country right now.  Here's an excellent recent episode of Citations Needed that looks at the history and politics of efforts like this to deny legal rights to victims of all sorts of corporate crimes.

Market efficiencies

The ACA, by design, keeps the insurers involved in determining the cost of your health care.  This happened because we didn't want a "Big Gubmint takeover of healthcare."  The argument there was business people are good at finding "efficiencies" which Gubmint people are not. Insurers, being all business-minded and whatnot, are going to find the most efficient way to succeed at their business. 

Which is fine, except for the fact that the insurance business is not actually about providing you with health care. Instead it's about taking bets on when you're going to get sick or die and profiting from those bets.

The editorial comes several months after two advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the United States Department of Health and Human Services claiming that several Florida health plans sold in the Affordable Care Act marketplace discriminated against HIV patients by charging them more for drugs.

Specifically, the complaint contended that the plans placed all of their HIV medications, including generics, in their highest of five cost tiers, meaning that patients had to pay 40 percent of the cost after paying a deductible. The complaint is pending.

“It seems that the plans are trying to find this wiggle room to design their benefits to prevent people who have high health needs from enrolling,” said Wayne Turner, a staff lawyer at the National Health Law Program, which filed the complaint alongside the AIDS Institute of Tampa, Florida.

Turner said he feared a “race to the bottom,” in which plans don’t want to be seen as the most attractive for sick patients. “Plans do not want that reputation.”

I'll say this for them. They are very good at what they do.  Not sure why we want them to keep letting them do it, though. 

The rent is too damn high

And going up

NEW ORLEANS -- The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says people who buy federal flood insurance need to plan for big rate hikes.

Craig Fugate says some people now paying hundreds of dollars a year could wind up paying thousands of dollars a year. That's because Congress has ordered the program to pay for itself.

And this has been your regular installment of Feds Tell New Orleans To Suck It.

Previously on FTNOTSI:

Turner and fellow members of the flood protection authority don’t share that confidence. “Barge gate” has become a four-letter word as the corps prepares to hand over the keys and responsibility for operation and maintenance of the system by June 1, the onset of the 2013 hurricane season.

Their complaints are numerous: The corps backed off the operational parameters originally promised for the barge gate; closing it takes too long and is too complicated; and, by the way, it has never been closed without breaking.

“Other than that,” Turner said with a rueful laugh, “we love it.”

And, on an earlier episode, our heroes were left to operate and pay to maintain their broken system all by their lonesomes. 

By the June 1 start of hurricane season, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be handing over the keys to the $14 billion hurricane protection system it has built around metro New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Yet as the deadline approaches, the agency responsible for the East Bank flood defense—the South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East—knows that the eye-popping $34 million annual bill it will soon face is beyond its means, and possible solutions are blocked by state and congressional politics.

The costs include $14 million for annual operation and maintenance of the system – a figure that does not include future levee raising — as well as $20 million a year for the next 30 years as part of the state’s cost-share for the whole project.

Rent keeps going higher and damn higher. 

Don't even know where to begin with this IG report

But then, neither did Maldonado.

Every sentence of today's report from Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux on the City of New Orleans employee life insurance system is a potential news lede.

I might point out that the part where benefit claims were not filed for six of 21 City employees who died during a 2 year stretch is pretty staggering.

I've read about companies like Wal-Mart who take out secret life insurance policies on their employees and collect the benefits themselves. We know that from time to time the city discusses ways to turn its public resources, like its water system, into profit centers but, for now anyway, we'll assume they aren't planning to take this route where it regards their employees.

No, this looks like it's probably more stupid than it is sinister. Although, in this town, it is pretty difficult to know the difference since these factors so often combine to form... you know... tradition.

In the wake of the report, Hartford has also agreed to stop paying commissions to two agents, who each raked in more than $125,000 through the life insurance policies over the past eight years. Though the report does not name them, Quatrevaux identified them as Lionel Smith and L-Force Management Group, whose principal is Noah Lewis.

The two men, both of them contributors to Mayor Ray Nagin's political campaigns, were named by Nagin to insurance "committees," comprised of agents, that advised City Hall on insurance matters and shared in commissions. Both men were on an 11-member health insurance committee that city officials said in June 2005, after an unfavorable ruling from the state's Ethics Board, that they planned to disband.

The committees were a traditional source of patronage, and the members were reliable contributors to political campaigns. Observers said the system was antiquated and offered little of value to the city, and the ethics opinion of June 2005 said the committees violated state law.

That'll help buck the trend

Maybe not such an excellent time to buy some dirt in Louisiana.

Allstate Corp. is asking to raise rates for 144,000 Louisiana homeowners who get their insurance coverage from two Allstate companies. According to the state insurance department, Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate wants an average 11.3 percent increase for 71,000 homeowners covered by Allstate Insurance Co. The company is proposing an average 5.9 percent hike for 73,000 homeowners covered by Allstate Indemnity Co. Together, the requests total just under $17 million in higher rates.

Right on the heels of...

With dire warnings that New Orleans' aging drinking water, sewer and drainage systems face "serious risk" without significant infrastructure investments, Sewerage & Water Board officials today will begin trying to build public support for a plan that would more than double customer rates by 2016.

What about a no-placard clause?

If local businesses are going to have a harder time making business interruption claims, maybe the city will have to re-think its ridiculous tiered re-entry plan.

The Future of Conservatism

Up and coming G.O.P. rock star (and potential Vice Presidential candidate) Gov. Bobby Jindal will apparently have to make two very interesting political decisions at the end of the current legislative session.

While he's being coy about his intentions, it will be very difficult for the Governor not to veto the proposed repeal of the State income tax. At the same time, PBJ may soon be signing into law a steep increase in many Louisianians' auto insurance bills.

This should make some interesting political theater for the rising star in the coming months. We would have asked him to comment but he doesn't seem to be available lately.

Look! A playground!

I wonder if this contributor to today's idiot page understands what it is that Allstate actually does.

Alligators

Over the weekend, First Draft linked to this story about the business strategy employed by major insurance companies. Anyone even remotely familiar with the "boxing match" (insurers' term not mine) going on in New Orleans over the past two years will recognize this behavior. But who knew they actually planned it this way?

The Alligator

One McKinsey slide displayed at the Kentucky hearing featured an alligator with the caption ``Sit and Wait.'' The slide says Allstate can discourage claimants by delaying settlements and stalling court proceedings.

By postponing payments, insurance companies can hold money longer and make more on their investments -- and often wear down clients to the point of dropping a challenge. ``An alligator sits and waits,'' Golden told the judge, as they looked at the slide describing a reptile.

McKinsey's advice helped spark a turnaround in Allstate's finances. The company's profit rose 140 percent to $4.99 billion in 2006, up from $2.08 billion in 1996. Allstate lifted its income partly by paying less to its policyholders.

Similarly, the city seems to feel as though it has successfully sat and waited out hundreds of property owners in New Orleans as it has begun proceeding with its list of unwanted demolitions. It seems to me that had this process begun a year ago, there would have been a much stronger outcry. Today.. it barely even makes the news.

Yes!

I heart Meemaw

The new Ethanol

Looking for a reason to root for Florida's entry into the absurd who-can-hold-the-earliest-primary derby? Here you go.

ORLANDO — If Florida gets its way, hurricane insurance will be the new ethanol in presidential politics. Jealous that Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status for White House balloting always boosts that state’s self-interested obsession with corn-based fuel, Florida’s political elites are uprooting the campaign calendar in large part to put their own pet issue on the national agenda.

Lobbying presidential candidates to back a federal catastrophe insurance fund is at the root of a bipartisan crusade in Florida to make the nation’s fourth-largest state one of the early battlegrounds in the 2008 nomination races of both parties

FEMA allowed insurance companies to overbill NFIP

Will FEMA begin demanding its money back from insurers the way it has been demanding repayment of emergency assistance from evacuees? Don't hold your breath.

Celcus has more

Haven't done this in a while

Time for a new poll. First, some background reading assignments:

• T-P's Katy Reckdahl updates us on the ongoing attempts by NOPD to stamp out New Orleans's Second Line clubs' right to frees speech and assembly.
  NOPD is charging arbitrarily disparate and astoundingly high parade fees to clubs in an apparent attempt to discourage them from marching. Read the entire article for details of the not-so-subtle harassment of parade participants on the part of officers and also for further evidence that Arthur Hardy is a douchebag.



• Allstate continues to weasel this way and that in order to wriggle free of the "risky" Gulf Coast market.



• Dambala has a post up in which he postulates that escalating Entergy rates pose the greatest threat to recovery.. particularly as the Summer approaches.

Which.. of course.. leads to the question just who is the biggest bloodsucker currently operating in New Orleans? After checking out the links, you may answer today's poll.



Update: This morning, the Second Line litigants have reached a settlement they say they can live with.