Katrina Coverage

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 […]

A month ago FEMA promised to re-bid some of the no-bid contracts awarded after Katrina. They've yet to do that for four of the biggest contracts involving: the Shaw Group, Bechtel Corporation, CH2M Hill and Fluor Corporation. Those are for temporary housing and are worth about $400 million.
The DHS says they won't re-open those contracts […]

Speaking before a Senate panel, David Paulison, acting head of FEMA, says they're going to get new bids on $400 million worth of contracts:
"It sure looks, with hindsight, that FEMA would have been in a much better position if it had had a lot of contracts in place that had been bid that were standby […]

The article "FEMA troubles no shock to previous chief" reports the thoughts of former head of FEMA Joe Allbaugh:
[He says:] "FEMA has been broken for quite some time…"
The FEMA that he directed did a good job responding to the 9-11 terrorist attacks four years ago, he said. But now it suffers as one of 22 […]

A detailed accounting of some of the fed money spent on cleanup and rebuilding is available, the NYT reports in Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions.
There were 15 contracts over $100 million, and five of those were over $500 million.
And, more than 80% of FEMA $1.5 billion in contracts were no-bid or with limited […]

There's a timeline and a CNN transcript here dealing with Bush using Katrina to take the opportunity to drive down American wages.
See also this excerpt from 9/21's Lou Dobbs show.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Less than a year after he took the post, state Democratic Party Chairman Jim Bernhard stepped down from the leadership job Friday, saying he needs to focus on his engineering and construction company — which is heavily involved in Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts…
Bernhard is chief executive officer of The Shaw […]

No, not as long as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Howard Dean, and the rest of the Democrats are in charge the looting will continue. However, in "Hurricane looting not over yet", the Right Rev is concerned with the more Republican form of looting:
…Already Halliburton is on hand with a no-bid contract for reconstruction.
Actually, I think […]

That company might have some political connections with the Landrieu family. Press release on their Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts here.

Reuters:
Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal […]