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.
Veteran NFL linebacker Scott Fujita, who enjoyed his most successful
seasons with the Saints, signed a one-day contract with the team so that
he could retire as a Saint, the club announced Monday.
Fujita was a big part of the team that came together after Katrina
and enjoyed the best run in franchise history, with two NFC Championship
game appearances and a Super Bowl title.
“I’ve been fortunate to play in this league for a long time and for
some great organizations, but there is no doubt that my times spent in
New Orleans were some of the best years of my life,” Fujita said. “The
way the team and the community embraced us when we first arrived, and
the way they continue to do so, even today, shows how deep this
connection is. I’m honored to be a part of this organization and so
proud to retire as a New Orleans Saint.”
Fujita, 33, signed his contract provided to him by the Saints in
Machu Picchu, located in the Andes Mountains in the Urubamba Valley in
Peru, South America. He is accompanying former New Orleans Saints
teammate Steve Gleason on an adventure of the fabled Inca tribe in the
South American mountains.
The Saints released a photo of Fujita signing his contract.
This means the Saints, who open the season at home this year, could set up Week 1 as Scott Fujita Day. It would be a terrific way to put the "bountygate" experience to bed by celebrating the retirement of one of the saga's primary victim/heroes.
It's also a perfect way to end the coming Summer Of Falcons Hate which we're all very much looking forward to. The Saints face the Falcons at home in Week 1. The next 4 months of obnoxious fan trash talking will tax the internet to its capacity. If you've got large files to download, or cute animal streaming to observe, better get that out of the way now. Also that gives us plenty of time to figure out how to finally dress that statue.
In the meantime, the only problem anyone is trying to solve revolves around the Saints and the 15th draft pick in tonight's first round. I'm still not a big fan of the NFL's new(ish) prime time 1st round format. I get that it's essentially a reality show but I still think the draft works better as an all-day weekend event; like a football game would be if you didn't have to actually sit there all day and pay attention to it.
One thing they have gotten right, though, is inviting guest presenters with some tie to each team to announce later round picks at the podium. This year, for example, the Saints 3rd round pick could be broadcast by live video stream from Scott Fujita at Machu Pichu. Of course it won't. And that's why the draft sucks.
But it's still a sucky thing that no one can ever stop talking about. Like pilates or Jimmy John's sandwiches or NyQuil. Here are some of the things that have been said in the process.
While there’s depth in the sense of numbers on the roster, there’s a
lack of depth in the sense of experience and ability at receiver.
The same could be said at tackle.
Losing tackle Jermon Bushrod to Chicago in free agency was big.
Certainly he’s not an elite player in the league. But he is solid and he
did start for the past four seasons.
The position is open for Charles Brown to swoop in.
Oooh. Nobody wants to watch Charles Brown do any swooping out there. Let's see if we can avoid that.
The Saints desperately need an infusion of young cheap talent because
they are tight against the salary cap but acquiring that young talent is
made harder by the loss of their second-round pick for the bounty
investigation penalties.
Sports are like everything else in life in that the good times never
last forever. If we can live in a world where Angela Hill isn’t on your
TV everyday and I can’t gleefully read Roger Ebert savage a horrible
movie, you best believe the Saints won’t be fun to watch with Drew Brees
every Sunday forever. If the Saints are going to be a serious contender
in 2013, Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton must nail the draft starting
Thursday and their history lately is spotty at best.
Better to go get a guy who will immediately help the Saints get better this season before age and the salary cap eat everybody's face next year. Malbrough thinks that's Tavon Austin which is probably not true. But the principle is still a good one.
The Saints need to become a much improved team immediately in a championship-or-bust season. An offensive player might be more likely to help them do that.
On the other hand, it's always more enjoyable to get drunk and do fun stuff such as drafting Barkevious Mingo AND Tyrann Mathieu. The argument in favor of the latter is especially compelling.
Firstly, there's a HUGE difference between taking a knucklehead in
the first round and taking one in the third. And secondly, there are two
kinds of knuckleheads. There are knuckleheads who are just fucking
assholes, who do things like kick people in the face and steal from
friends/teammates/roommates and beat women up and shit like that. Fuck
those guys. And then there are good kids who aren't trying to hurt
anybody or anything, but they do stupid shit because they're just
looking to have a good time, and they're young and dumb and they think
it'll never come back to bite them in the ass. Right up until it does.
Maybe more than once. Because, this just in, they don't always "learn
their lesson" the first time. I sure as hell didn't when I was in my
early 20s, and I damn sure didn't have any reason to think I'd keep
getting pass after pass because I was hot shit.
All indications are that Mathieu is the latter. And that's okay with
me. Maybe he never gets his head out of his ass. I'm willing to take
that risk. Because I genuinely believe that he's trying to get a grip
upon his shit. And because the worst-case scenario just doesn't bother
me all that much. The world isn't going to end if the Saints take a
chance on a guy in the third fucking round and it doesn't work out
because he just can't put the damn bong down. I'll get over it, and so
will you. It wouldn't be the first time, nor will it be the last. We
lived through Jonathan Sullivan, for crying out loud.
To quickly recap: guys who batter cheerleaders with bricks or commit
armed robbery or drive drunk with loaded pistols in their glove
compartments are genuine character concerns, but a kid who just likes to
smoke weed... that's every college student in America. You want your
star athlete, if he's going to have a vice, to be a pothead. In fact,
hopefully, he's going straight from practice to his TV, blazing up and
watching cartoons all afternoon. That means he's not getting in real
trouble. Yet every year, great talents like Percy Harvin and Moss and
Sapp plummet in the draft because of failed weed tests, and smart teams
scoop them up, put them on the Whizzinator therapy plan, and cash in
big-time.
As for me, I'm never very good with constructive advice so I can't say with any certainty what the Saints should do. I can say with some considerable uncertainty that if they take any of the tackles or any of the receivers who are not Tavon Austin, I'd be okay with that. Reid even suggests a tight end. I might be okay with that too.
And that's all I've got. Now I'm off to Machu Pichu Tracey's to watch some of this debacle spend quality time with the Mrs. Be sure to tweet your complaints legibly. And we'll see you all in the Summer of Hate.
A City Council hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon on a new system to oversee police off-duty detail work
was postponed after a long meeting Wednesday night with police officer
representatives, council members, Chief Administrative Officer Andy
Kopplin and others.
Though details of the meeting were sketchy,
the delay may indicate that the city is willing to tweak its planned
system to oversee the scandal-prone "secondary employment" system, which
a March 2011 U.S. Department of Justice report labeled an "aorta of corruption" in the NOPD.
Ryan
Berni, a spokesman for Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office, did not
immediately return a call for information on the night meeting or why
Thursday's hearing was put off.
Luckily, Jackie Clarkson was available for comment, though. And that's always more fun anyway.
Detail hearing delayed CM Clarkson: "we are trying to resolve this behind closed doors cause that is good government" bit.ly/17ZPPj1
— Karen Gadbois (@gadboislensnola) April 25, 2013
In an article
titled "Entrepreneurship Is Falling - And That's Great News," Atlantic senior
editor Derek Thompson, referring to the much-discussed New Orleans
entrepreneurship wave, wrote, "A resurgent
economy needs younger talent, but this is also a sign of a broken city with
more cultural appeal than business opportunities, which has forced new
residents to start their own companies rather than join existing, thriving
enterprises."
Louisiana’s coastal marshes can be noisy places with insects buzzing
and chirping constantly, but that’s no longer the case in some places.
“What
happened after the Deepwater Horizon is when we came to marsh impacted
by the oil, they were relatively silent,” said Linda Hooper-Bui,
associate professor in the Department of Entomology at LSU.
Preliminary
results from field work and lab experiments point to two oil components
— naphthalene and methylnaphthlane — to be at least part of an
explanation for large declines in insect populations within oiled or
previously oiled areas of coastal marsh, she said.
In addition to the obvious increase in the sophistication with which government and commercial authorities are able to shut down things they don't like on the internet, there's also a steady cultural movement afoot toward shutting everyone up. Can't put my finger on it exactly, but opinion about amateur online communication commentary (i.e. ordinary people having opinions about stuff) is trending toward a consensus that everyone should be made to shut up.
Yesterday we noted that, in the New Orleans area alone, we've managed to count 7 incidents of false alarm "suspicious package" sightings in the week following the Boston Marathon bombing. In at least two of those cases, it was reported that local authorities dispatched a specialized bomb robot to investigate.
You have to believe this was an exciting opportunity for them. "Come on, guys, we get to use the robot!" shout our SWAT heroes as they slide down their poles and leap through the windows of their General Lees on their way out to poke at the latest discarded bindle someone has called in. Some day they'll have an opportunity to use the drone too but they're still not willing to admit they have one of those. For now, though, they'll have to play with this toy.
We can call it a toy, by the way, because it was well within everyone's understanding that its only practical application in New Orleans this week was going to be recreational. If at some unlikely point we're on Canal Street watching the robot confront something we think might actually explode, we'll be sure to adjust our terminology. For example, the other night, @liprap suggested "Hurt Roomba," which seems about right.
Whatever you call it, what we can say about the robot is that it was clearly the most calm, level-headed individual on the scene of any of our non-crises this week. But before you take this as a sign that it's time to dump the entirety of your business' manpower in favor of a full staff of cool, calm robots, consider this cautionary tale from today's news. For about five seconds today, Twitter users were concerned a bomb might have gone off at the White House.
Journalists inside the White House at the time of the tweet
quickly refuted the claim and reported that no blast had been felt
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The AP announced from a separate
account moments later that the initial tweet was not true and that
hackers wrote and published the incorrect claim.
In the same amount of time it took most of us to read the fake tweet and say, "Well that's probably bullshit," to ourselves, it had already been refuted. No one had enough time think too much about this information, much less allow it to inform any serious practical decisions. Well, almost no one, anyway.
Immediately after the fake tweet went live, both the Dow Jones
Industrial Average and the S&P 500 took drastic nosedives
before quickly rebounding.
Keith Bliss, senior vice president with New York
brokerage Cuttone & Co. on the trading floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, said he heard a slow wave of noise across the exchange floor
as traders responded to the first tweet.
"We all started looking at it to figure out what was going on, and
just as quickly there was another wave of noise after the AP denied the
story," Mr. Bliss said. "Just goes to show, you shouldn't have a
knee-jerk reaction to anything that comes across Twitter."
But isn't it as likely that this immediate unthinking reaction in the market was generated by the robots?
The acceleration of Wall Street cannot be separated from the automation
of Wall Street. Since the dawn of the computer age, humans have worried
about sophisticated artificial intelligence—HAL, Skynet, the
Matrix—seizing control. But traders, in their quest for that
million-dollar millisecond, have willingly handed over the reins.
Although humans still run the banks and write the code, algorithms now
make millions of moment-to-moment calls in the global markets. Some can
even learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately, notes Weisenborn, "one
thing you can't teach a computer is judgment."
Could high frequency trading algorithms be designed to respond automatically to world-changing headlines that flash over the wire? If so, then it would explain the remarkable speed with which so many stupid decisions were made today. Besides, it's certainly no less likely than a robot writing that headline in that first place.
Visit the website of Forbes.com and read the earnings forecasts for the New York Times Company,
and you will notice the byline "By Narrative Science". Normally you
have to open a copy of Wallpaper* to find someone with such a florid
monicker. Except of course Narrative Science is not a person but a robot
journalist – actually a set of algorithms which take data and turn it
into words.
So not only have we automated the task of analyzing and responding to real world market information, but we're also putting the machines in charge of defining it. If we're going to outsource even the practice of bullshitting one another out of our money we're truly scraping the bottom of the barrel of what's left of human usefulness.
Pretty obvious one here: Bunker as meathead equals Landrieu as
racist. In other words, the very force the protagonist most despises is
the one he actually is. Just as the New Orleans political family is
built on an integrationist legacy, the sitcom family rests on the war
between father and son-in-law. The meathead/racist label stings.
When they go to the polls, Archie and Edith find Louise Jefferson in
the role of registrar. Archie asks if she’s making a few bucks–some deep
racist rhetoric there. Worse, Archie’s name isn’t on the roll and he
can’t vote. He begs Edith not to tell the kids of his failure, and
demands she vote against Packard.
Two interesting things in this scene: highly bizarre that the
Jeffersons control the polls. After all, the evaporation of that
condition in Central City has seriously disrupted local politics.
Second, is there some notion that Landrieu won’t enjoy the expected
dominance at the polls in 2014? Could Archie’s exclusion represent a jab
from (people whispered, at least pre-OPP video) potential mayoral
candidate Marlin Gusman? The study of Archie Bunker rhetoric reveals no
certainties, only deepens the mysteries.
The Mitch and Marlin show is very much like any other typical New Orleans political feud between crooks and phonies. The exaggerated rhetoric tends to obscure the finer points. But the symbolism is true enough that it becomes irresistible... and fun too, of course.
The hazard comes in assuming the intellectual argument justifies the actual positions of either of the combatants. Neither of them is making a particularly coherent argument although it is possible to hope each gets some of what he's asking for.
Gusman wasn't wrong to sign on to the consent decree. A sweeping OPSO reform absolutely has to happen. But its mainly Gusman's own administrative practices that need to be overhauled. But rather than acknowledge this Gusman has made some rather bizarre arguments.
The question before Judge Lance Africk this week is whether
conditions at the jail violate the United States Constitution, as the
Southern Poverty Law Center (representing a proposed class of current
and future inmates) and the U.S. Department of Justice has argued.
“Are you telling the court that conditions at Orleans Parish Prison,
sometimes known as OPP, constitute violations of federal rights for the
inmates there?” Rosenberg asked.
"I'm not admitting that," Gusman replied. He would allow that
conditions were sometimes "not reasonable" due to inadequate staffing.
But he said that the plaintiffs' 30 page findings of fact — the legal
basis for adoption of the consent decree that Africk will rule on — was
based on "lies and misrepresentations."
"What's the advantage to the sheriff's office of entering into the consent decree?" Africk asked.
“We certainly felt a lot of pressure. After the city had already
entered into their consent decree with the police department. I also
believed this would be a good opportunity to improve public confidence
in what we’re doing," Gusman said. (Note "public confidence" in an
agreement based on "lies and misrepresentations.) “I also believed that
this would provide the funding we needed to do our job.”
For the Mayor's part, he appears to be making an equally absurd yet opposite argument from Gusman's. Mitch is dead set against the consent decree reform of OPP yet his argument against it involves a lot of complaining about how badly OPP needs to be reformed.
Since 1990, the city, under a federal consent judgment, has paid the
sheriff's office a set amount each day for every city prisoner. It's
been $22.39 a day since 2003. Gusman said last year he needs as much
from the city as he gets from the state, $26.39 a day.
However, the per diem system has come under criticism from nationally known corrections expert James Austin and city Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux.
In
a report this month, Quatrevaux's office said that even though "the
evidence suggests that this per diem amount is inadequate to sustain the
operation of the jail," the arrangement "provides a disincentive for
the sheriff to correct inefficient information systems that delay the
release of some detainees."
“I’m surprised that the administration has had a year to do this and
we still don’t have a fixed budget,” (Councilwoman Susan) Guidry said. “This is a perverse
incentive to keep people in jail. It’s wrong, it’s not a healthy thing
to do and we have had a whole year since the last budget. I don’t want
another year to go by without us dealing with this.”
Guidry’s criticism prompted Landrieu’s budget director, Cary Grant,
to say that a fixed payment system for Gusman is still “a goal of the
Landrieu administration.”
So, Guidry asked him, how many people did he have working on the issue today?
“Today we probably have fewer people working on that than we should,” Grant admitted.
That exchange between Guidry and Grant was from a late 2011 hearing in regard to the 2012 budget. Many months later, the situation is no different.
The Landrieu administration's disregard for the residents incarcerated
at OPP is evident in the fact that for years they haven't done anything
to improve the conditions at the jail while continuing to fund it. In
his testimony at District Court, Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin admitted that
the Landrieu administration was well aware of the problems going on at
the jail. Now that the Justice Department is insisting that the city
share responsibility with the sheriff for the unconstitutional
conditions there, Mayor Landrieu would like us to believe that his hands
have been tied since he has no control over Gusman or OPP. But the
Landrieu administration has dragged its feet on changing the funding of
the jail from a per diem structure that incentivizes filling beds at the
jail to one that would increase transparency and accountability. When
Laura Coon of the Department of Justice asked Kopplin if the city had
done anything to increase the city's oversight over the jail, for
example, ordering a forensic audit, Kopplin admitted that although this
was something within the city's power, they hadn't ever looked into it.
“During this fiscal year, the sheriff, DOJ, federal judges are all
riding up to tell us and the taxpayers of the city to write a blank
check and hand it over,” Landrieu said. “We will not voluntarily write
an ambiguous, unjustified sum of money to the Orleans Parish sheriff’s
office.”
But under the current budgeting process, this is basically what happens every year. If we can reasonably presume the reforms will mean structural budgeting changes the Mayor and the Sheriff have been unable to make on their own, why not just consider this the "blank check" to end all "blank checks"?
One wonders after a while what the Mayor's aim is in all this. If he's hoping the feds will offer better better financial terms, maybe we can see this behavior as a histrionic negotiating ploy. In which case, we hope he's successful but that seems unlikely.
Instead, most of this comes down to regular old turf politics. And that always comes with the attendant rich but hyperbolic metaphors. Thanks again to People Say for delving into those mysteries for us.
I never even got chance to try Mais Arepas. I hope they can absorb the increase. Also, there have been various plans for "re-vitalizing" Oretha Castle Haley over the years but this is the first time I've seen anyone talk about making it a "gallery row."
In the risk-management plan, West Fertilizer said the "worst-case
scenario" would be an ammonia leak from a storage tank or hose. It
didn't specify the likely consequences. The company said the plant had
no alarms, automatic shutoff system or firewall.
Bly
said BP's well site leader and Transocean crews misinterpreted a
pressure test that showed that change, as well as later pressure
changes, losing key reaction time.
"That risk was neither recognized or addressed until it was too late?" Sterbcow asked.
"There were signs that the well was flowing," Bly said. "It didn't seem to be recognized or reacted to."
(BP's vice president of drilling and completions for the Gulf Patrick) O'Bryan described hearing someone ask the rig's master, Curt Kuchta,
about activating the rig's blowout preventer, a key piece of equipment
intended to shut down the well in an emergency, in the final moments
before the explosion. Kuchta said he lacked permission to initiate the
device's emergency disconnect system from Jimmy Harrell, Transocean's
offshore installation manager on the Deepwater Horizon, O'Bryan
testified.
"So after you see the fire and after you've seen
mud raining on deck, you recall somebody asking Captain Kuchta about
activating the BOP?" Karis asked, shifting focus for the accident to
the Transocean rig crew.
O'Bryan replied: "He was pretty empathic that he couldn't do it unless he had permission."
So on the rig, unlike at the fertilizer plant, there were a shutoff system* and alarms and in place, but they "didn't seem to be recognized or reacted to." In a way, that might be worse, than having no emergency response system at all. We'll be able to answer that better once we know more about what went wrong at the fertilizer plant. Of course, that may take a while because...
A placid announcement from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that it's heading to West, Texas, to investigate the massive fertilizer plant explosion
shouldn't be remarkable. But it is. Such deployments are rare. Critics
of the agency — which is tasked with investigating such accidents —
charge that it's mismanaged and prioritizes the wrong investigations.
The agency blames someone else, if indirectly: BP.
For the past two years, the Chemical Safety Board's budget requests
have argued that its lengthy investigation into the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill is sapping its ability to respond to other incidents. In its 2013 budget request,
a document sent to Congress in February 2012 to make the case for its
federal budget allocation this year, the CSB wrote that "the burden of
the ongoing Deepwater Horizon investigation and a backlog of old cases
has further hampered the CSB's ability to initiate new investigations."
And so gross negligence begets more negligence, I guess.
Meanwhile, it's been kind of an eventful week, so it may have been easy to lose the fact of the three year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion today. Here are a few relevant links.
Phase 1 testimony in the BP trial wrapped up this week. All parties will now file briefs summarizing their arguments. Judge Barbier will then be expected to rule on the "gross negligence" question although that may take a while.
Given the case's complexity, legal observers and others say it could
be another year before Barbier issues a ruling on the first phase that
will outline the percentage of liability to be assigned to BP or its
partners, and whether any of the companies should be found to have
committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, which could result in a
four-fold increase in Clean Water Act fines.
Barbier has given
attorneys two months to submit briefs summarizing their opinions about
the evidence presented during the first phase of the trial.
So the outcome of the first phase remains in doubt and could be for some time.
Phase 2 begins in September and will focus on determining how much oil actually spewed into the Gulf during the several months that the well was un-capped.
Not only is the chemical dispersant that was used to "clean up" the
Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010 extremely dangerous, it was
knowingly used to make the gushing oil merely "appear invisible" all the
while exacerbating levels of toxicity in the Gulf waters, according to a report released Friday, the eve of the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, by the Government Accountability Project.
The President's Oil Spill Commission released a report this week that patted everyone on the back for a job well done.... except Congress, of course, where the proverbial mistakes were made.
The report gives the Obama administration a grade of B, the oil and gas
industry a B- and Congress a D+. Congress gets credit only for enacting
legislation that will funnel 80 percent of any Clean Water Act fines
from the disaster to the five Gulf states, money the commission hopes
will be used for coastal restoration.
About 40 minutes by boat west of Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish,
near Barataria Bay, three small spots of land are all that remain of
what was once a much bigger barrier called Cat Island. One is a small,
lifeless hook, easily found only by those who remember when the barrier
island was five acres. A second, only slightly larger in size, is a
vegetative graveyard, populated only by the bases of dead mangrove trees
and bits of trash.
“This island was covered in oil,” Plaquemines Parish President
Billy Nungesser said Thursday, standing just a few feet from the waters
of Cat Bay. “Year after year we’d see deterioration in this island,
but it was always green.”
Once, the mangrove trees rose eight feet overhead, and pelicans
nested around the springtime. When the oil came up from the deep in
2010, the area became the environmental ground zero. After checking up
on the island, Parish officials rushed Associated Press photographer
Gerald Herbert to the area to take some of the first photographs
of oil-covered brown pelicans. For those waiting nervously to see
just how bad the disaster would be, there was no more potent symbol
than the state bird of Louisiana covered in crude. Three years
later, however, there is no sign of birdlife.
Molenaar -- who has been charged in a bid-rigging scheme involving work at the sheriff's office -- was by then getting plenty of work from Gusman. Records show three Molenaar firms, including Landmark, have raked in well over $1 million in work for the sheriff's office.
Ironically, perhaps, Molenaar may have formed Landmark simply to create the appearance of competition on sheriff's office work he was seeking.
