2 conservative leaning states approved a minimum wage increase last night - AR & MO. AR will increase the minimum wage to $11/hour and MO will increase to $12/hour over the next 5 years. It’s time for a modest increase in LA! #lagov #lalege #RaiseTheWagehttps://t.co/MkwBWEu8If— John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) November 7, 2018
University of Miami-led study indicates that the massive amounts of dispersants BP applied directly at the spewing wellhead – about a mile below the Gulf of Mexico’s surface – failed to curb the oil’s spread, and may have increased the disaster’s ecological damage.Yeah sorry about that. Maybe those features will work in the next version. But hey let's see what you did get.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig released more than 200 million gallons of crude oil, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history. About 770,000 gallons of the dispersant Corexit was applied at the wellhead. Another 1 million gallons was sprayed over the massive slick on the water’s surface. Dispersants loosen the tension between oil and water, allowing the oil to break up into smaller droplets. It was hoped that dispersants would lessen the disaster’s impact.
The study is one of several in recent months that have questioned whether dispersant should be used at all. Other research cited in the UM study noted that dispersant appears to fight nature’s ability to clean-up after oil spills. A study by the University of Georgia indicates that dispersant kills or inhibits the growth of oil-eating microbes, including naturally-occurring bacteria that rapidly consume oil that dispersants only break apart.Oohhhh man, remember the "magic microbes"? They really were celebrated as heroes back during the Summer of Spill and afterward when everyone was trying to tell us how no all that bad the whole thing was. And that whole time we were out there murdering the little guys. What a bummer.
Dispersant has also been linked to illnesses in humans and several types of marine life. The Gulf’s deep sea coral were found to suffer more from a dispersant-oil mix than oil alone.I'm sure there is a punch line somewhere about a Trump Administration directive to ease off of holding oil producers accountable for this sort of damage but I'm too depressed to look it up right now.
Officials at a New Orleans school that is doubling as a polling location are refusing to open the school's parking lot to accommodate voters with disabilities.
The polling site, the former McDonogh No. 28 Elementary School on Esplanade Avenue, had opened its parking lot to those voters for years, long before the current charter school operator, Foundation Preparatory Charter School, moved in this summer.
But the new charter operator did not make the same accommodation for residents voting in the Nov. 6 congressional midterms, said Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal Court and Chief Elections Officer Arthur Morrell. The school's handicapped accessible ramp is located inside its parking lot.
He's downplaying it this week, but you can see the possibilities here for Cedric Richmond.The Democratic Party has slightly higher favorability than the Republican Party in preliminary data from CNN's national exit poll. About half of voters said they had a positive view of the Democratic Party, while the Republican Party is upside down, with slightly more than 40% saying they had a positive view of the Republicans.The downside for Democrats is an extremely low favorable rating for Nancy Pelosi, the woman who would like to again be Speaker of the House if Democrats win control of the House of Representatives. Only about three-in-10 voters had a positive view of Pelosi and more than half had an unfavorable view. In fact, more voters had an unfavorable view of Pelosi than had an unfavorable view of President Trump, according to preliminary results.
Richmond said he would consider running for a leadership post should the House flip to Democratic control. But any position he might seek will depend on the moves of his colleagues, particularly his longtime friend Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, of South Carolina.Okay so probably Cedric isn't going to be Speaker. But he's clearly going to be in a top leadership position. Theoretically this is "good" for us down here in his district. At least it would be if there were more money on the table for local government in Washington right now. But the current mood there is still predisposed toward austerity and privatization. And that isn't likely to change just because the Democrats hold a slim majority in the House. It's better for us than the current situation. But not great.
Clyburn has said he would likely run for speaker of the House if former Speaker U.S. Rep Nancy Pelosi declines to do so. For his part, Richmond said he would support Clyburn if he were to make a bid for the gavel.
Richmond said he would defer to Clyburn before running for several available spots. Any position in the Democratic leadership, however, would help Louisiana's relatively junior delegation punch above their weight. Richmond would also be in line to lead a subgroup of the House Judiciary or House Homeland Security committees on which he now serves, he said.
Cedric Richmond is concerned that the Democratic Party might be moving too far to the left. Shortly after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory over establishment Democrat Joe Crowley in New York this spring, Richmond told the New York Times he worries that while figures like Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are “fighting for [their] principles on what direction the party should go, we don’t really have anybody doing it on behalf of moderates and other Democrats. It has become a one-sided conversation.” We here in the midst of the leftist insurrection think Cedric is exaggerating our influence just a tiny bit. But we are pleased to see him take notice. What we’ve noticed is Richmond has put in more than his share of “doing it on behalf of moderates.”So.. not great. But certainly more.. um.. persuadable than a Speaker Scalise would have been. That's the hope, anyway.
Richmond has resisted calls to abolish ICE telling us, “The men and women of ICE are federal employees who do their jobs admirably.” He also said the Baton Rouge police crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters after the 2016 murder of Alton Sterling was “very reasonable.” Richmond’s own response to that incident, in fact, was a “bi-partisan solution” to help police buy more surplus military equipment. He has not signed on as a sponsor to John Conyers’ Medicare For All bill and has instead chosen to support a hybrid “consumer” driven buy-in scheme that preserves the private for-profit health care system. Richmond has also gone out of his way to defend Scalise from criticism, which suggests to us his commitment is to solidarity with the political elite classes he circulates in rather than with the poor and working class people of the district he represents.
Interestingly, in the wake of Ocasio-Cortez’s win, Richmond also garnered comparisons to Crowley as the sort of conservative Democratic machine politician who might one day be vulnerable to grass-roots leftist opposition. Such an opposition campaign doesn’t exist this year. In the meantime, the best we can hope for is for Richmond to continue to be aware of the possibility and lend a more attentive ear to leftist concerns as he moves up the seniority ladder in the House.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Cezar, Rainbow, and their families now. This report suggests that they're going to be ok. It isn't yet clear on whether or not the African serval is a legal exotic pet in Louisiana. I can't remember if that question was ever answered the last time a loose serval was found wandering around Uptown in 2009. But at least I remembered that it happened.Jefferson Parish Animal Control officers have captured an exotic cat that escaped his owner’s home and wounded a pet chicken in a Metairie backyard.Cezar was found hiding in a bush at a residence near York Street and Kent Avenue in Metairie Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 6), according to animal shelter Director Robin Beaulieu and Tanya Faia, the attorney representing the cat’s owner. The cat had an injured paw, Beaulieu said.“Cezar and his owner are on their way to his vet’s (office) where he will receive the proper medical treatment,” Faia said.Animal control officers deployed to the neighborhood Tuesday morning after receiving word that the cat, an African serval, had attacked and wounded a chicken in the backyard of Kaila Miller Cureau. Cureau discovered her Silkie breed chicken, Rainbow, in Cezar’s mouth around 4 a.m. Monday.
New Orleans (7-1) could be 8-0, too, had the Saints not allowed themselves to get dissected by Ryan-of-all-people-Fitzpatrick and the now 3-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1. But everyone except the ’72 Dolphins loses sometime in the NFL.
Were the Saints better, or was it just the Rams’ time to tumble in a hostile hornet's nest on the road? Well, as they say, history is written by the winners. And the Saints are winning and winning and winning, seven straight W’s despite facing the teeth of a defending division champion’s schedule. In their past four games that have knocked off a quartet of playoff contenders: the Redskins, Ravens (OK, maybe not the Ravens), Vikings and now the Rams.
The entire season, as Saints quarterback Drew Brees aptly said, is a gauntlet. But it is turning into a season that more and more is bending to the Saints’ skill and confidence. “We believe in ourselves,” running back Mark Ingram said. “We believe we can overcome anything. This is a great team.”
Lewis and Aiken took turns explaining the problems at the small charter school. The school has been plagued by financial mismanagement, Aiken said, noting that the school’s bank statements were addressed to the Carondelet Street church where the board president, the Rev. Charles Southall, serves as pastor. Meanwhile, Southall’s home address in Baton Rouge is the one that Harney listed with the state agency that distributes per-pupil funding to schools, another potential violation.That's a good old fashioned public school being ripped off by some politically connected preachers right there. That's the way we used to do things in this city. The quasi-privatization charter hell is just window dressing, really.
She also noted the school improperly withheld tens of thousands of dollars in employee retirement contributions for weeks or months and did not fully document credit card expenses.
In an audit that examined the 2016-17 school year, auditors randomly checked purchases on one credit card statement. They said they couldn’t find receipts to back up two of the three purchases that month.
They also noted that Harney’s accounting handbook had no policy on how to handle credit cards.
In response, school officials sent an undated policy to the district in January. “The school credit card is utilized at the discretion of the Board President,” it said.
The new policy requires charges to be approved by the chief financial officer — the same administrator facing ethics charges.
Monthly statements show the card was issued by First NBC Bank and had a $20,000 credit limit.
“We discontinued doing credit cards in” — Southall paused. “When did the bank close? 2016. At the end of that, that was the end of it.”
First NBC Bank was declared insolvent in April 2017. Weeks earlier, Ashton Ryan Jr., the bank’s president CEO — and a Harney board member — stepped down from the financial institution.
He remained on the charter board and later asked his name to be removed from financial documents.
Welcome to college football Saturday. pic.twitter.com/eFPN6nOAWW— Zach🐷 (@zrau) October 20, 2018
Saturday, just about every college football fan not present is going to wish he or she could experience a night like this in Death Valley, and just about everyone not wearing Alabama crimson is going to pull for LSU. Pulling for the Tigers to upset the status quo, knock off the big dog, aggravate the stuffing out of Saban. Maybe make him throw his headset until it breaks.Is it reasonable to expect this pretty good.. but not great... LSU team is capable of that? Probably not. But there is also a powerful tendency toward magical thinking with regard to what sorts of things are and are never possible in Tiger Stadium. And who are we, who sat there ourselves on a rain soaked Saturday evening only last week, to deny the fun of that to anyone?
An LSU win, as improbable as it may seem, could save this college football season from the black hole that is Alabama.
Never thought a graphic of mine (In this case, the escaped Audubon Zoo jaguar’s killing spree in July) would be turned into a jack-o’-lantern. My work here is done. Happy Halloween, y’all. (H/T @skooks) pic.twitter.com/0q1qsb7UGI— Dan Swenson (@NolaGraphicsGuy) October 31, 2018
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy hasn’t yet said that he’ll be a candidate for governor next fall, but some of his fellow Republicans aren’t waiting to line up for him — or against.Man, losing the Grigsby primary to Eddie Rispone is a slap in the face, alright. But Kennedy is still signaling he could run.
First Lane Grigsby, a Baton Rouge businessman and big-time Republican donor, let it be known that he’s not impressed with Kennedy’s brief tenure in Washington. Grigsby told The Advocate’s Mark Ballard that he thinks Louisiana’s junior senator, in office less than two years, isn’t ready for the Governor’s Mansion.
“Louisiana needs leadership, not another politician looking for another lily pad,” said Grigsby, who is backing the only announced Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, fellow contractor Eddie Rispone. “(Kennedy) hasn’t done much yet but appear on Fox News.”
Publicly Kennedy has said how much he likes his Senate job. “But, it’s hard to stomach what is happening to Louisiana right now,” Kennedy said in prepared statement. “Private sector job growth is among the lowest in the country. Too many of our kids can’t read their diplomas.”Meanwhile rivals like Jeff Landry and his allies have been trying to "clear the field" of formidable candidates and it's looking now like Grigsby is on their side. So it's with that in mind that we should consider the persistence of the "Kennedy might not run" rumors that float about the subtext of a lot of these stories lately. Is that line coming from Kennedy? Or is it coming from someone trying to discourage him?
Armed with an internal poll showing that he could beat Edwards, Kennedy is making the rounds of funders to say he agrees with them that Edwards’ policies are bad for Louisiana’s economic future, then adding that Rispone is largely unknown and can’t beat the Democrat.
So that's not good. I did want to drop in here to correct Democratic candidate Renee Fontenot-Free about one thing, there. The sky may very well be falling. There are serious threats to the integrity of our elections out there. But they aren't coming from the sources Edmonds fantasizes about. Instead they are coming from Edmonds himself and people like him all over the country. Free would do well to take the threat more seriously.State Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, staked out a position as the most conservative candidate on the panel, particularly when it came to election-related issues. In his closing statement, Edmonds said that “elections are being threatened all over the nation.” He said that thousands of “illegals” -- the way he described undocumented immigrants -- were participating in elections in Texas and California even though they are ineligible to vote.There has not been any proof of widespread voter fraud in any major American election recently -- and Edmonds offered no proof that people are voting in Texas, California -- or any other state -- who shouldn’t be. His statement prompted some indirect criticism from Free. “I understand that there are alarmists everywhere. It makes me very sad that they try to scare people into thinking that the sky is falling,” she said directly after Edmonds finished speaking.
In October 2017, two weeks before a key council utility committee meeting, Rice sent a text message to Yolanda Pollard, communications manager for Entergy, asking how many people Hawthorn would be able to get for the meeting. Pollard said Hawthorn had secured “50 people and 10 speakers.”Also, on a previous episode of "A Charles Rice Special"....
“If Hawthorn can get more people I will pay,” Rice responded. He followed up a few minutes later, saying he didn’t care about the cost. “This is war and we need all the foot shoulders [soldiers] we can muster.”
Hours later, Pollard said that Hawthorn would send 75 people and 10 public speakers, all wearing pro-plant t-shirts. The cost would increase from $23,000 to $29,000.
“Deal,” Rice responded.
This time, the defense made the play. Or actually two.That's our boy PJ Williams last night. PJ Twitter (still trending as we type this morning) has been a wild ride. But as happy as the ending may seem, let us also recognize that even congratulations come with qualifications.
First, Alex Anzalone and P.J. Williams combined for a tackle that caused a momentum-shifting fumble in the second quarter.
Then Williams returned an interception for a touchdown that all but sealed the redemptive 30-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
Looks like PJ Williams will live to get yelled at by us another day.— Megrim Reaper (@meganromer) October 29, 2018
Marcus Williams walked out of the visitors' locker room at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday clutching a football.
It was the game ball, presented to him after the Saints' 30-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
It was Williams' return to the place where his missed tackle on a Stefon Diggs catch ended New Orleans' season last year in the playoffs. But for Williams, this game wasn't about redemption.
This game was about his grandfather, Richard Glennon Boyd, who died of cancer on Tuesday. Boyd was 79.
"I know he's proud," Williams said. "He told me he was proud of me before he left and I know he's still looking down on me and watching over my shoulder."
Edwards says the trip stems from his position as co-chairman of the National Governors Association’s Resource Center for State Cybersecurity. The NGA’s cybersecurity conference will be held in the Shreveport area in May 2019.Previously Edwards declared October to be "Cybersecurity Awareness Month"
Edwards says Louisiana can learn from Israel’s work and research on cybersecurity.
"There are more threats out there than you can imagine," Edwards said during a proclamation-signing ceremony on Thursday. "If you think about it too much, you almost can't even sleep at night."The problem a lot of us are having, though, is we can't be properly freaked out if they won't tell us what it is we are supposed to freak out about. Edwards refused to identify any of these specific threats that were keeping him up at night. There was a guy there from something called the "Cyber Innovation Center" who said only that "Our adversaries are extremely capable," and "The threats are real."
The unidentified man approached the lawn-care workers and identified himself as a police officer, showing a badge described as a silver star featuring a pelican. He then began questioning the workers about their employer, their places of origin and whether they had any marijuana or cocaine in their possession, the NOPD said.The robber next called both men over to their work truck and began patting them down and frisking them. He then reached into their pockets and took their wallets, police said.
So weird that with all their fancy new predictive policing and stuff they still aren't able to handle some people walking down the street on a pre-published route for a few hours.The popular Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus Carnival parade will roll on Saturday, Feb. 9 in 2019, two weeks earlier than its usual slot on the Mardi Gras parade calendar. Brooke Ethridge, the co-captain of the science fiction-oriented parade, said that she was made aware of the change during a routine check-in with City Hall.Ethridge said that a city representative informed the krewe that some parades would be moved to earlier dates in order for the New Orleans Police Department to provide the best security.
The city had been using the software since 2012. But in March, former mayor Mitch Landrieu declined to extend the Palantir agreement for a fourth time. And current Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she would not revive it.See we have to train cameras on you 24/7 and plug everything we know about you, your friends, your shopping habits, grades, work life, etc. into our algorithm that predicts the future in order to protect you. This isn't about keeping you in line. This stuff is for your own good, don't you know? Here please enjoy a relaxing session in our meditation room. It's right here behind the metal detector.
Cantrell has kept that promise, but documents obtained by The Lens show that her administration is in the beginning stages of developing a new tool for identifying likely victims and perpetrators of gun violence, partnering with the same criminologist whose research formed the foundation of the Palantir software.
The tool is being developed by the New Orleans Gun Violence Reduction Council, which Cantrell created in May.
In an August op-ed published by NOLA.com, Cantrell said that the council’s central task is “to come up with a plan to execute the violence reduction recommendations produced by my transition team.”
Steps from the walk-through metal detector inside New Orleans City Hall are a few beige recliners in a small, softly lit room, where an attached office allows social workers, ministers and other faith-based volunteers to lend an ear to the public and connect people to the city’s spectrum of care.Don't be afraid. We want you feel supported and safe and... wait a minute... looks like we're going off script a little bit.
On Oct. 25, Mayor LaToya Cantrell, city officials and area faith leaders cut the ribbon for a “meditation room,” what Cantrell says is a “safe space for our people to come, to reflect, even to seek counsel if they need it.”
Another council member, Nathalie Simon, suggested increasing law enforcement resources and capacity for deterrence. “If we solve more crimes, less likely to feel like you can get away with it,” the meeting notes say. Simon is a special council at Laitram, a Harahan-based manufacturing firm.Alright we just want to keep you in line, okay? Does that mean the police have their eyes and ears on everything you do or say? Maybe. "It's unclear if there's anything that would prevent" that.
Even in the absence of an official role in the program, it’s unclear if there’s anything that would prevent the NOPD from accessing the data and identities produced by the new program for its investigations.
Recalling a recent conversation he had with Mayor LaToya Cantrell, (Downtown Development District Director Kurt) Weigle said he was told the city may need Duncan Plaza's land to move or expand City Hall.The Duncan Plaza redesign has been in the works for a few years now. We keep hearing about how "outdated" the current look is but I've never understood what that means. The article lists ways to improve the drainage and lighting that sound pretty good. But, fundamentally, a park is still a park. It's an open public space where people are free to come and go and enjoy. Weigle seems to have different ideas about that, though.
"Generally speaking, we understand the mayor is looking at all options to improve or move City Hall and until a final decision is made, there could be some role for Duncan Plaza to play in that," Weigle said. The plan is for Duncan Plaza to be under construction next year, but he added that he's not sure of the timeline the city is on to make a decision on City Hall.
Weigle said the district sees the reimagined Duncan Plaza becoming a highly active space, hosting frequent exercise classes and events.In other words, it will be "programmed" in the sense that a lot of things happen for which the city and DDD can collect fees. As for "managed" one can't help but read into that a deliberate attempt to keep the homeless and other undesirables out which has been a major obsession for city government for some time now.
"Parks that are highly programmed and highly managed become successful," Weigle said.
But whether he will face off against Cannizzaro, who will be 67 in 2020, is unclear. The district attorney, who is nearing the end of his second six-year term, has not said publicly whether he will seek re-election. On Wednesday, he declined to answer questions on the matter directly, instead referring an Advocate reporter to his spokesman.I know I know.... just gonna focus on the process.. etc. Great way to get in the mood for Bama Week. But, again, what are the odds that a guy already passed retirement age is going to want to run in what looks to be a tough election and then have to go back and do six more years of grinding away at The Process? I wouldn't, would you?
The spokesman later issued a statement that did little to clarify Cannizzaro's plans. The statement said that "the job aspirations of others are immaterial," and that Cannizzaro and his staff "remain focused on doing our jobs of prosecuting criminals, enforcing our laws and advocating for the many crime victims of New Orleans."
Since moving to New Orleans five years ago (a span about which Juarez is both forthright and somewhat abashed), he's seen similar patterns of displacement. The genesis of "The Subletter's Omen" was the unexpected loss of a Mid-City neighbor, “Ms. Audrey,” who was forced to relocate to Kenner when her rent jumped from $750 to $1,350.
"She'd been on our block for a long time," Juarez says, "someone who was always on the porch, talking to people, feeding the cats. Now there's an Airbnb there. The house next to us is an Airbnb too, and on the corner is a giant place that's been divided up into four Airbnbs. And this is Mid-City, not Bywater! I felt in a way that when we lost Ms. Audrey the neighborhood lost its heart."
That painful farewell became the opening of “The Subletter's Omen.”
City Council President Jason Williams told a packed New Orleans Film Festival audience Tuesday night that he’s in the 2020 race for Orleans Parish district attorney.That's a whole cycle and a half away but it's something everyone has been waiting to talk about. As DA, Leon has been just about the purest embodiment you could conjure of the brutality and injustice our legal system visits on the poor and vulnerable. A lot of people will be champing at the bit to get after him. At the same time, he's possibly the toughest and most savvy politician in the city. If he decides to run for reelection it will be because he believes he can win.
Williams, 45, made plain what many political observers had long expected: that he’ll take another run at a position he sought a decade ago, when he ran a distant third to Leon Cannizzaro.
Cannizzaro, who is nearing the end of his second six-year term as district attorney, has not said publicly whether he will seek re-election.
“The central issue is we’re developing into a plutocracy,” he told me. “We’ve got an enormous number of enormously rich people that have convinced themselves that they’re rich because they’re smart and constructive. And they don’t like government, and they don’t like to pay taxes.”Holy crap, right? Or, maybe not. Maybe we ought to just keep on going with the status quo. That's what the local pundits say in their endorsements, anyway. They know best.
At least 16 self-storage projects are in some phase of development in the New Orleans area, according to real estate investors and industry analysts. The boom will add well over 1 million square feet of new storage space — enough square footage to cover all of Canal Street from the Mississippi River to Interstate 10.I especially love the image the Advocate chose to illustrate the extent of the square footage since the river-to-I10 is also a rough description of where most of the above sea level land is located around here.
The recent boom in New Orleans is part of a national trend, driven by shifts in the real estate market, low interest rates, and the search by investors for a high-yielding investment that will hold up even in recessions.
The $32 billion dollar self-storage industry has grown by roughly 4.5 percent annually in recent years, significantly faster than the broader economy. In the last year, investors have added $4 billion in new storage spaces.
That has helped push up rental rates on existing spaces. Real estate consultant Kevin Hilbert said investors have begun waking up to the fact that rents on some local storage units “are on a par with” suburban luxury apartments.Not a thing wrong with that market-driven system, right? Not according to City Planning Comissioners Robert Steeg and Walter Isaacson who had this to say when considering a modest inclusionary zoning plan this month.
“Some storage companies can get $300 a month for a 10-foot by 10-foot unit,” he said. “You can get a pretty nice apartment for $3 a square foot.”
And self-storage, which generally consists of a warehouse divided into “rooms” of varying size, requires only a fraction of the maintenance and other costs that apartment buildings incur.
Real estate investors typically borrow most of the money they use to invest in properties, so low interest rates are allowing them to borrow cheaply.
Commissioner Robert Steeg asked the CPC staff whether the city would be better “using a carrot rather than a stick” to attract affordable development through tax incentives, and whether there are “any empirical studies or data driven analysis as to which of those two methods works best.”Market forces are going to have us all living in orange metal sheds, I guess, but that's the best we can do.
Isaacson also asked whether the “large amounts of new housing units proposed and coming onto the market” may end up dropping prices into affordable ranges “just by market forces.”
Cantrell took a more critical view of the state of Canal Street. She remains concerned about cleanliness and the presence of vagrants often seen sleeping in the street.Love tooo preserve the retailers' property rights. But not nearly as much as we love "quality of life enforcement."
"We have great, great space -- we know that and it's historic. But we have to do better," Cantrell said. "Even with pressure washing the buildings, you drive Canal Street, it's nasty. ... It still feels grimy."
Weigle said that in addition to Sonder's deal involving the three Motwani buildings, the Downtown Development District is exploring creative ways to get other buildings back in commerce. On the 800 block of Canal Street, Weigle said there's a plan to combine the vacant upper floors of three separately owned buildings into a new entity that would preserve the property rights of the first-floor owners who want to continue earning revenue from their respective retail spaces.
Basically, they're gonna scrub the buildings down, hollow them out, and turn them all into vacation rental properties which they will protect the investment value of by aggressively rooting all us drunks, panhandlers and bicyclists out of the neighborhood. This is Dizneylandrieu on steroids and I'm all out of answers as to what is to be done. For a minute or two we were kind of hoping it would make a difference if we just asked our elected reps to remember the poor folks a little bit when they made their land use decisions. But it's clear they don't give a shit. Not sure what happens next.
Is the biggest oil disaster in history better or worse if it happens over a period of fifteen years rather than six months? Also how does one draw so much less attention than the other?NEW ORLEANS — An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history.Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever.
It's "largely unknown outside Louisiana," according to the Wa-Po. But that doesn't mean it's constantly on everyone's mind here either. Sure we get an occassional update. But it's remarkable that the Taylor spill has been relegated to the middle-to-back pages in the local press all these years.The Taylor Energy spill is largely unknown outside Louisiana because of the company’s effort to keep it secret in the hopes of protecting its reputation and proprietary information about its operations, according to a lawsuit that eventually forced the company to reveal its cleanup plan. The spill was hidden for six years before environmental watchdog groups stumbled on oil slicks while monitoring the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a few miles north of the Taylor site in 2010.The Interior Department is fighting an effort by Taylor Energy to walk away from the disaster. The company sued Interior in federal court, seeking the return of about $450 million left in a trust it established with the government to fund its work to recover part of the wreckage and locate wells buried under 100 feet of muck.
For corporate media, the story of Russia covertly influencing the country promotes a climate where they can re-tighten their grip on the means of communication by accusing alternative media on both left and right of being Russian-sponsored “fake news.” As previously reported (FAIR.org, 8/22/18), under the guise of protecting readers, big media companies like Google, YouTube and Bing have changed their algorithms, resulting in devastating drops in traffic for reputable alternative media sites. Alternative media has been deleted, de-ranked, de-listed and de-monetized, effectively sidelining them. In response to ostensible Russian meddling, media giant Facebook announced last week (Washington Post, 10/11/18) it had shut down over 800 US accounts and pages for “inauthentic behavior,” a term even more nebulous than “fake news.” Included in the 800 were several police accountability watchdog groups and other alternative media, adding to its recent (temporary) deleting of TeleSUR English.It's been a tumultuous transition period in the media business. The most distortive trope we have to describe it would have us believe "the internet killed journalism." But that's not anything like what's been going on. Capitalism has been killing journalism for a long time.
Commercial journalism was never really great to begin with, of course. But as its practitioners experienced the same erosion of wages, benefits, and job security Americans have been subjected to as steadily worsening rates since the 1970s, they elected to tell that story as though it were a special circumstance unique to them."Your local paper got bought out by a conglomerate and now runs Jonah Goldberg and Ann Coulter every other day, plus whatever the local PD tells them. They just fired the last local reporter. We can fix this if journalists pretend to be opinionless."— Allison Hantschel Has Always Lived In The Castle (@Athenae) October 21, 2018
It looks like the books reviewed in that article are pretty interesting. But it's also absurd to pretend nobody saw any of this coming. But if we do not pretend then we have to grapple with the fundamental problem of a media industry dominated by billionaires and mega-conglomerates. We're not going to do that so instead we're going to kick you off the internet. That'll fix everything for sure.It is only now, a decade after the financial crisis, that the American public seems to appreciate that what we thought was disruption worked more like extraction—of our data, our attention, our time, our creativity, our content, our DNA, our homes, our cities, our relationships. The tech visionaries’ predictions did not usher us into the future, but rather a future where they are kings.They promised the open web, we got walled gardens. They promised individual liberty, then broke democracy—and now they’ve appointed themselves the right men to fix it.But did the digital revolution have to end in an oligopoly? In our fog of resentment, three recent books argue that the current state of rising inequality was not a technological inevitability. Rather the narrative of disruption duped us into thinking this was a new kind of capitalism. The authors argue that tech companies conquered the world not with software, but via the usual route to power: ducking regulation, squeezing workers, strangling competitors, consolidating power, raising rents, and riding the wave of an economic shift already well underway.
Cannizzaro also complained that the funding wasn't being used to help victims more, specifically that it wasn't being given victims' programs operated by district attorneys.The most significant way in which the reforms affect victims of violent crimes at all is in the form of the nice little funding boost it provides for victims services. Leon doesn't care so much about that as he does that he isn't seeing any of the money himself. Sounds like somebody's got a victim complex.
"We must also be sure, in the rush toward criminal justice reform, the most important demographic is not forgotten or neglected. I speak of the victims of these offenders," Cannizzaro said. "I am hopeful that as justice reinvestment moves forward, that the victims of violent crime and those that advocate for them, will receive a more equitable share of the funds."
Most of the offenders affected by the criminal justice overhaul -- including those who have had their sentences shortened in 2017 -- didn't commit crimes that involve victims. The focus of the criminal justice overhaul was on prisoners who committed nonviolent crimes. Over half of the crimes committed in Louisiana are nonviolent offenses without victims, said officials with the Department of Corrections.
Victims services also are getting a boost in funding thanks to the criminal justice overhaul. The law requires that 20 percent of any savings that is pumped back into the criminal justice system from the criminal justice overhaul be spent on victim services. Edwards announced this week that $1.7 million more is available for victim assistance because of the prison population reduction, though it's not going to programs run by the district attorneys.
The Saints have lost their deep threat.So, the important point here is, we're still not sure who is even on the 2018 Saints yet. It's nice when you can kind of accidentally end up 4-1 while figuring all that stuff out.
New Orleans placed Ted Ginn Jr. on injured reserve on Thursday, which will keep him on the shelf for at least eight weeks, if not the rest of the season.
The wide receiver has been battling a knee injury and was seen in the locker room on Wednesday wearing a thin sleeve. With him out, it is likely that Tre'Quan Smith will receive more playing time moving forward.
Ginn appeared in the first four games of the season and collected 135 yards on 13 receptions. He was out during last week's game against the Washington Redskins, during which Smith saw his most extensive role and finished the game with three catches for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
Residents in the Lower 9th Ward have been asked to boil water if they intend to use it after a pump was taken offline at a Sewerage and Water Board plant.This thing where they lose pressure at Carrollton but it only affects the Lower Nine is relatively new. I think this is the second one this year. What causes that?
People in that area are asked not to drink, make ice or brush their teeth with tap water until further notice.
Water pressure in the area dropped below 20 psi, which automatically triggers such an advisory. The pressure dropped after a pump at the Carrollton Water Plant was taken offline about 8 a.m., and another pump was brought online.
Other area of the city were not affected.
Someone will still have to explain to me how registering your bike helps you with "the safe return of your property." At least please show me someone who got their bike back because of that.For private citizens, bike registration is now voluntary, though the cash fee to do so will jump from $3 to $5 on Jan. 1, 2019.“Bicycle registration was initially put in place to ensure the safe return of citizen’s property, and we hope people will continue to utilize the program,” said Councilwoman Kristen Gisleson Palmer, who authored the ordinance, in a statement.The ordinance also moves bike registration management from the purview of the New Orleans Police Department to the Department of Safety and Permits. Under the NOPD, registration has been a cumbersome process for those without proof of purchase for their bikes.
A 31-year-old man sat in the New Orleans jail for 15 days this June until he got surprising news from his attorney: Someone was posting his $2,500 bail for a heroin possession arrest. It wasn’t his fiancée, who had been trying to scrounge up the cash. “Bonded out by who?” he recalled asking. “I couldn’t believe it. They just picked me.”I'm a little curious about the Advocate's position here. This article mentions Cox's relationship with Cantrell several times. The impression one gets is they intend it to be a hit piece on her somehow. But tying her to a cause like this hardly seems like it should reflect poorly on her.
The answer was an organization called the New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund. Until this month, it has flown under the radar — except for the lucky defendants awaiting trial who have been released thanks to its money. The group's founders include Joshua Cox, a senior adviser to Mayor LaToya Cantrell who has continued posting bails since Cantrell took office, including that of the man who was arrested for heroin possession.
To the man released from jail, who asked to remain anonymous, they are the “bond angels.” His charge was refused by prosecutors the day after his release.
Cannizzaro declined an interview request, but he made his feelings clear in a statement.Still, having said all of that, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room here. As much as we support the Freedom Fund's work, in this case it must be said that they are, in fact, terrible people.
“This is a very disturbing set of circumstances,” he said.
Family members or friends who post a cash bail with their own money will encourage a defendant to show up in court when ordered, he said. Otherwise, they stand to lose their money. “But when there is some outside group, some agency we don’t know anything about, simply posting the bond for the individual and walking away, then it gives the defendant no reason, no incentive to show up. And so he doesn’t have to be accountable,” he continued.
In an interview on Tuesday, Medbery and another group member, software developer Chris Laibe, said the Freedom Fund sprang out of the same concerns the federal judge had about the New Orleans bail system.That may seem like a small thing for now. But just make a note of it. It's likely to become relevant sooner or later.
Medbery and Laibe said a group of entrepreneurs like them, under the name of the Krewe de Nieux, had been looking for a way to change the city’s criminal justice system.
The company that created the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board’s trouble-plagued billing software now says efforts to fix widespread problems with the system were “well underway” before the City Council contacted the company this summer, walking back comments one of the firm’s employees made earlier this week.Just say what is happening. Or at least pick one lie and stick with that.
According to a joint statement from Cogsdale Corp. and the S&WB, which was released by the utility on Wednesday, weekly meetings aimed at resolving problems with overcharges and other issues have been held since March.
The statement appeared to contradict comments Cogsdale’s director of professional services, Judy Wells, made during a hearing before the City Council’s Public Works Committee on Monday.
During that meeting, Wells was asked several times by council members when the firm first learned of the “crisis” of overcharges and other problems S&WB customers have suffered in recent years. Wells initially said the company first heard about the problems through media reports and then repeatedly said the company was not “formally” notified about the problems until a letter from the council this summer.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has been cleared of the possibility of criminal charges associated with her use of a city-issued credit card when she was a City Council member. The issue first arose during her campaign for mayor last year.This comes relatively quickly on the heels of a legislative auditor's report that didn't exactly absolve Cantrell and other City Councilmembers of wrongdoing. But it did kind of excuse them all from prosecution on account of the lax or confusing policies they were operating under. We've argued previously that there's actually plenty to look into with regard to all of them and Cantrell in particular. But no investigating authority was ever serious about upsetting any apple carts that might also benefit political allies of theirs. More than anything this is a case of everybody does it therefore it must be okay.
Attorney General Jeff Landry's office released a statement Wednesday (Oct. 17) saying the mayor has been cleared of any charges after an investigation that Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro recused himself from during the campaign. Landry, a Republican who has at times cast himself as a political opponent of New Orleans interests, praised Cantrell for her cooperation.
Formed in 2017 as an offshoot of organizing being done by the National Guestworker Alliance and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice the Seafood Workers Alliance has hundreds of members in 15 different plants throughout Louisiana.The employers in this industry thrive on exploiting the H-2 program which subjects foreign workers to horrendous abuses and depresses the wages and working conditions of the Americans they are forced to compete with. Here is an extended Buzzfeed feature from 2015 on the appalling conditions imposed on guest workers in Louisiana and elsewhere.
The organization has focused heavily on suing employers and building alliances with local communities so that workers can help push back when they face abuses in the workplace. They’ve built deep ties in particular with the African American community. Often, low wage employers have attempted to pit low wage African American workers against Latino workers, who many saw as coming to Louisiana to take their jobs.
Through combined struggle, the workers have learned that, while their struggles are different, their problems both with local employers and enforcement are similar.
“Look, we understand now that when they say deportation that’s incarceration for black people,” said Alfred Marshall, a middle-aged African American activist with Stand with Dignity, also a project of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice.
“When they say undocumented, we know that there are over 50,000-60,000 people in New Orleans who have outstanding warrants on them that can’t even go get a job because of the fear they have,” said Marshall.
“The language they use is different, but the problems are the same and now we understand that better than ever.”
Each year, more than 100,000 people from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, and South Africa come to America on what is known as an H-2 visa to perform all kinds of menial labor across a wide spectrum of industries: cleaning rooms at luxury resorts and national parks, picking fruit, cutting lawns and manicuring golf courses, setting up carnival rides, trimming and planting trees, herding sheep, or, in the case of Valdez, Gonzalez, and about 20 other Mexican women in 2011, peeling crawfish at L.T. West Inc.In response to these outrages, the Department of Labor tightened some of the rules intended to protect against some of these abuses. This was immediately opposed by Senator Bill Cassidy and then-Congressman Charles Boustany. They both frequently boast of the "friends" they have in the industry. Over the past few years, enforcement of the new rules has been de-funded and other restrictions on the guest worker program selectively modified by the Trump Administration although courts have ruled the DOL does retain enforcement authority should it choose to exercise it.
A BuzzFeed News investigation — based on government databases and investigative files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, thousands of court documents, as well as more than 80 interviews with workers and employers — shows that the program condemns thousands of employees each year to exploitation and mistreatment, often in plain view of government officials charged with protecting them. All across America, H-2 guest workers complain that they have been cheated out of their wages, threatened with guns, beaten, raped, starved, and imprisoned. Some have even died on the job. Yet employers rarely face any significant consequences.
Many of those employers have since been approved to bring in more guest workers. Some have even been rewarded with lucrative government contracts. Almost none have ever been charged with a crime.