Katrina Coverage

From Her Waning Fortunes:
…The good news for Blanco is that her Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is getting some legs after just three weeks of existence. This week several hundred leading design and planning professionals will meet with local leaders (by invitation only) for a three-day Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference at the Marriott Hotel. The […]

From 11/6's Post-hurricane cuts run deep, Governor chops $431 million in spending
Gov. Kathleen Blanco chopped $431 million in state spending Saturday in a move that could keep some state colleges closed indefinitely.
Blanco made the budget cuts a day before legislators are scheduled to convene at the State Capitol to begin addressing the devastation caused by […]

From the long article All eyes turn to Blanco:
…Caught between overwhelmed local leaders and a federal bureaucracy that was simply not prepared for the size of the catastrophe, Blanco was criticized for her response during the crisis by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and deposed FEMA Director Michael Brown. She has been the target of […]

FEMA has sent LA a bill for "its share of hurricane relief". Governor Kathleen Blanco says she can't pay it.
…Staffers for the governor "about fell over" Wednesday night when they received the Federal Emergency Management Agency's estimate of the state's costs for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Mark Merritt, a consultant working for Blanco.
FEMA projects […]

From Governor faults White House over rebuilding:
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, flanked by veteran Democratic activists and a union leader, criticized the Bush administration on Saturday for allowing hurricane rebuilding contracts to go to out-of-state firms and low-wage workers.
Speaking to a rally of about 1,000 union members and activists from the steps of the state Capitol, […]

From this:
Administrative officials are expected to push a set of proposals during the special session that convenes next Sunday to grant the state greater oversight of local levee boards.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced her intentions this week as a contentious debate continues to flare up regarding a series of South Louisiana levees that failed in the […]

Louisiana's budget deficit got an official number today — nearly 971 million dollars lost in state tax income that the governor and lawmakers will have to slash from state spending in the remaining eight months of the budget year.
Economists warn the budget problems could worsen as they get more concrete details of the lost sales, […]

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 […]

source
Gov. Kathleen Blanco charged her Louisiana Recovery Authority on Wednesday with what she termed "an awesome responsibility," namely "make real my vision of rebuilding a very strong and wonderful Louisiana."
Members of the authority gathered to be briefed on post-hurricane conditions and to tour the southeastern and southwestern sections of the state that hurricanes Katrina and […]

La. Gov. Blamed for Slow Removal of Bodies
Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them, according to memos released Thursday by a Republican-led House committee.
The 38 pages of e-mail […]