Katrina Coverage

The WaPo reports on the many sub and sub-sub contractors required to perform contracts in "Multiple Layers Of Contractors Drive Up Cost of Katrina Cleanup". One example they present is that of the FEMA buses.
Now, here's what the WaPo isn't telling you. In the article, they refer to "Spanish-speaking crews" doing roofing work. That's the […]

Way back in September, we offered "Is FEMA overpaying for roofing?".
Now, months later, NOLA has looked into this, specifically the ACE angle. A snippet:
Though Army Corps of Engineers officials say they did not overpay for the tens of thousands of blue roofs [temporary tarps] across the Gulf Coast, a review of their documents shows that […]

Late last year came the news that Kathleen Blanco had ordered precisely $564,838 worth of remodeling done on her offices… after Katrina.
The article said the single costliest portion of the final bill was $44,000 for walnut trim and granite countertops.
Jerry Jones, director of the state Office of Facility Planning and Control, said the sixth floor […]

Snopes says this claim is false:
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin created a phantom force of 700 "virtual policemen."
Actually, that's only partially false:
1. Snopes only discusses a satire from azconservative.org entitled "Nagin Defends Use of ‘Phantom Police’", which I linked to on October 1, and which has a creation date of 9/30 at that site.
2. However, […]

From this:
Huge stretches of the city are fallow: no power, no water, no sewer system, no life. Half the city workforce has been laid off, not a single public school is open, and the police department is being run by an acting chief after its former head quit. Mayor C. Ray Nagin is forced to […]

From this:
The Orleans Levee Board's longtime staff attorney was suspended Wednesday just minutes before he was scheduled to offer his analysis of controversial decisions by former agency President Jim Huey to hand no-bid contracts to relatives in the days after Hurricane Katrina and to collect nearly $100,000 in back pay several weeks before the storm.
Gary […]

We Americans might consider it a scandal that there are illegal aliens taking rebuilding jobs from American hurricane victims. However, in the alternate universe favored by the Associated Press, it's only a scandal when those illegal aliens are ripped off by corrupt contractors. Few people want people not to be paid, and few people want […]

From a LSU student columnist:
Throughout Louisiana’s modern history, corruption has flourished in state and local government. Some leaders have even celebrated our reputation saying it colors our politics. We may be corrupt, but we’re not boring.
Perhaps no one better fit this persona than our four-time elected governor, now jailbird, Edwin Edwards. For years, he survived […]

Foti: Levee Board president broke law
A unilateral decision in July by the Orleans Levee Board's then-president, Jim Huey, to pay himself nearly $100,000 in back salary was a clear violation of state law, Attorney General Charles Foti said Thursday in an opinion issued by his staff.
Furthermore, Foti wrote, the $1,000-a-month salary that Huey collected from […]

From this:
The head of the Orleans Levee Board has quit amid questions about no-bid contracts to his relatives in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
The final days of board president Jim Huey's tenure also had been marred by his collection of nearly $100,000 in back pay several weeks before the storm. Huey had led the board […]