Katrina Coverage

"Team Louisiana", the state-sponsored "forensic levee investigation team" with "six LSU professors and three independent engineers" says the floodwall on the 17th street canal was bound to fail due to improper design that didn't take into account weak soils below the levee.
And, they say that bad design should have been obvious to those responsible: the […]

New Orleans' central business district and the French Quarter now feature free, city-sponsored wireless WiFi access. Coverage will rollout to other areas within a year.
Of course, those companies that might have hoped to make money by selling WiFi to city residents have just been shafted, but such is the price of big splashy public attempts […]

Here's a short article called "A New Spice in the Gumbo", subtitle: "Will Latino day laborers locating in New Orleans change its complexion?"
It contains a couple of interesting quotes:
"I'm working for $6 an hour!" yelled one African-American man at Mayor Ray Nagin's first town-hall meeting last month. "They're bringing in Mexicans and expecting us to […]

The WSJ has a long article on the Orleans Levee Board. To the right you see one of their trademarked line drawings, this time of that board's former head.
To save time, I'll let Harry Shearer summarize the WSJ piece:
concentrates on the fractured responsibility of the levee boards, sewerage and water board, and Port, as well […]

If you read thinkprogress (nofollowpolicy), you'd think that. Except, they only provide part of the quote from the WSJ:
Catholic schools in New Orleans. That damaged city's public schools remain closed, but at least eight of its 35 private Catholic schools are already back teaching, less than three months after Katrina. Here's a modest proposal to […]

Their link-rich rundown from 11/15 is here.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes broadcast the dire warnings of Prof. Tim Kusky. As described in that post, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, Andy Kopplin, wrote a letter to CBS encouraging balance in their reporting. A copy of that letter is here.

Eric Schmeltzer (who?) calls Harry Shearer on to the carpet for his Ned Flanders-style goody-two-shoes coverage of New Orleans:
…Last night was the kicker. 60 Minutes dared to air a story quoting a scientist that says New Orleans might be so far below water in 90-to-100 year that it might need levees of 100 feet to […]

From Storm Hit Little, but Aid Flowed to Inland City:
When the federal government and the nation's largest disaster relief group reached out a helping hand after Hurricane Katrina blew through here, tens of thousands of people grabbed it.
But in giving out $62 million in aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross […]

There's a local forum here.