We interrupt this blog for an important rant. I just can’t resist the temptation to post this MUST SEE video. This guy is great (!!) and says everything that’s on your mind about our government.
Over 80% of schools in New Orleans were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. In some areas, there’s reportedly one book for every 300 children.
If you like to read, and want to help New Orleans’ schoolchildren, then rap star Ludacris wants you. He’s teamed up with Better World Books for an “Epic Book Drive” on dosomething.org to have books donated or sold to raise funds for school libraries in the New Orleans Recovery School District.
But hurry – you must sign up by June 1st to start helping. Collect 150 or more boxes, and Better World Books will even pick them up from your school.
The school with the most books collected wins a $1000 donation to their school library, and a pizza party for the whole school. Also, they’re even having a photo contest where each of two people who submit outstanding photos by text will win a $500 college scholarship.
Here’s Luda to tell you all about it:
Our Louisiana homegirl helped out the St Bernard Project with a fundraiser on the coast last week. The event reportedly raised $200,000. Check out the ap raw video here:
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many victims of the storm were unidentified. Only one remains unidentified in Harrison County, Mississippi, as reported on wlox.com
Here’s the story:
http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=14495225
Census Data Reveals Struggles To Rebuild – New Orleans News Story – WDSU New Orleans.
The American Housing Survey surveyed 60,000 people on housing conditions, repair costs and their rebuilding experience following Hurricane Katrina.
Judge: Barge did not cause Katrina flooding.
A federal judge has ruled that the infamous barge that washed ashore atop several houses during the Katrins levee breaks was not the culprit and did not cause the floodwall break in the 9th ward.
As 2011 approaches, tourism rebounds in 2010.
New Orleans – As the city welcomes thousands of visitors for New Year’s Eve as well as the Sugar Bowl, the tourism industry has something else to celebrate. 2010 has served up the best tourism business the city as seen since Hurricane Katrina.
Katrina Bridge Blockade Claims Thrown Out – WGNO.
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has thrown out the remaining claims in a lawsuit that said police violated people’s constitutional rights by firing warning shots to stop them from crossing a bridge to escape flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
To put it mildly, I’m incensd. George W Bush (remember him?) has the nerves of a jackass gone wild. In an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC, he says things that prove, in a not so subtle way, that Kanye West was on to something in his famous ‘black people’ rant.
Kanye just had to change the word ‘black’, and used either ‘poor’, ‘Louisiana’, or just said ‘people’. After all, let’s remember Bush had Condoleeza Rice & Colin Powell on his staff, so it wouldn’t be fair to say he cared less of blacks than others.
The EX-President – who so desperately told us about and went after ‘weapons of mass destruction’, and saw to it that his daddy’s arch-enemy was dead while our soldiers fought in a war we shouldn’t have been in, in the first place – says things that could make any true, caring American citizen shiver.
In the interview, Bush acknowledged the infamous picture of him sitting in Air Force One flying over New Orleans after Katrina was a “huge mistake”.
But the most blatant, insulting, insensitive, comment of the whole interview was what he said next: “I should have touched down in Baton Rouge, met with the governor, walked out & said ‘I hear you, I mean, we, we..know, we understand, and then we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna help the state, and help the locals..governments with as much resources as needed’, and, uh, and then got back on a flight up to Washington. I did not do that and I paid a price for it”, Bush says in the interview.
Why didn’t he do what any other human being in his position would have done, and what the Red Cross, and thousands of other caring volunteers did – touched down in New Orleans?
Bush goes on to talk about his “heck of a job” comment to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown, and also about what he felt from Kanye West saying he “doesn’t care about black people”, calling Kanye’s comment the “low point” in his entire presidency. Well, we all know one of his low points should have been in just watching the images of destruction & despair and the tears it brought to the eyes of people around the world. Or the war in Iraq.
In all of the ex-president’s persona, and certainly not in his words does he show the emotion of compassion or talk about his feelings for the people on the ground suffering, but how he felt himself, his feelings about himself, and what he should have done for himself.
Like they say, hindsight is 20-20, and woulda, coulda, shoulda, won’t cut it. We know he’s promoting his new book of memoirs, “Decision Points”, but the talk of the town is not about the book but the Matt Lauer interview.
So, maybe Kanye felt something and said something many, if not most of us in the New Orleans area began to feel back then – that Bush didn’t really care about poor people, and was – like Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” – out of touch with the reality of poverty.
After watching this, what do you think?
Are you a woman who lost everything to the levee breaks after Hurricane Katrina? Still haven’t built back up to the full wardrobe you had before Katrina? Then listen up, and maybe you can pack your bags for a trip to New York and come back with a new look.
Casting producer Cara Weissman, working for BBC, is searching for female Hurricane Katrina survivors (between the ages of 24-48) who lost everything and still need help rebuilding their wardrobe. In particular, they need women whose wardrobe is keeping them from getting back into the workforce or women who have trouble finding appropriate clothing for their current job.
Ms Weissman said they will fly up to four lucky females to NYC for a week, put them up at a 5-star hotel, and provide them with a new look that can help to change their life around. Their amazing $5,000 makeover will air on TLC’s hit makeover show “What Not to Wear.”
To nominate someone, send the following information to cweissman@bbcnyproduction.com with a few (at least 3) pictures that show your nominee’s poor style choices.
HER NAME:
AGE:
SIZE/HEIGHT:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
MARITAL STATUS:
Also, describe her personality, her style in detail, and how it’s holding back her life, along with interesting anectdotes about consequences of her poor style (things that happened because of her style). Make sure to include your name, phone number and relation to the nominee.
The Urban Conservancy, a nonprofit organization promoting localism and appropriate land use, will honor seven local businesses and one elected official with Above & Beyond awards at its annual “ You Are Here” fall fundraiser event, Thursday, Oct. 21.
“These awards honor businesses and individuals who persevere in the face of adversity and are critical social and economic anchors within their communities and their industries,” said Dana Eness, executive director of The Urban Conservancy.
Award winners were selected from a pool of nominees submitted by the general public. Nominations came from Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes for businesses and individuals that excel in responding to their communities’ needs through civic engagement, superior customer service, and best practices such as sourcing and hiring locally.
The 2010 Placemaker award winners recognized for contributing to their communities’vibrancy and vitality are:
Sunrise Trading Co., Inc. (Stephen J. Murphy) – Jefferson Parish
Zeus’ Place (Michelle Ingram) – Orleans Parish
D & C Seafood Inc. (Duong “Sugar” Tran and Chan Tran) – Plaquemines Parish-
Shine Productions (Barry Lemoine and Rose Marie Sand) – St. Bernard Parish
Lakeside Camera Photoworks (David Guidry) – St. Tammany Parish
Category-specific awards will recognize continuity, resiliency and leadership.
P & J Oyster Company, Inc. – the oldest business of its kind in the United States – will receive the 2010 Continuity award; Rocky & Carlo’s Restaurant and Bar, a Chalmette institution since 1965, will be honored with the Resiliency award; and Councilwoman Susan G. Guidry will receive the Leadership award.
For ticket and event information, contact David Baker at dbthad@staylocal.org or 561-7474 or visit http://www.youareherenola.com
The City of New Orleans has launched a brand new website that a city press release stated is “easier to navigate, provides a wealth of information and is more user-friendly”. There’s even a page that lists all festivals, parades, and celebrations.
But one celebration is glaringly missing from the list: Mardi Gras. Obviously the website is designed to give residents and tourists city information and allow us to do business with the city, but to not include Mardi Gras – the city’s star celebration – on this list is a slight that needs to be fixed.
ABC26 gives us an inside look at the new exhibit in the Louisiana State Museum, opening October 26th, showing how New Orleans has progressed since hurricane Katrina
For President Obama’s 2010 education speech, the ears of many educators and students throughout the nation were tuned in. (Oh, the drama of putting schoolwork aside on a school day to watch television -wow!)
While many younger students may not grasp the significance of the U.S. Department of Education asking America’s educators and students to watch TV, the precedence of Obama’s education speech makes some folks nervous, as though the current White House administration has some “hidden agenda”.
After all, in an era of partisan politics, it would be easy for a commander-in chief to influence the next of generation voters to accept his party’s policies in the future.
Yet it is imperative that young people understand the importance of quality education on their future. Personally, I have two teenage grls at home who can’t seem to understand the necessity and advantages of learning advanced subjects that they don’t think will have a bearing on their future.
I suspect that maybe there are more sinister reasons for those educators who don’t agree with giving President Barack Obama the time to address education concerns in the most conventional forum and those parents who think it’s a bad idea. Maybe these educators are the people with hidden agendas.
If you missed it, watch the President’s speech below. Is there a “hidden agenda”?
Whoever says New Orleans area people don’t work hard is really out of touch and needs to take a look at how small businesses are “Rising From Ruins“, the story of New Orleans’ business owners post-Katrina and the struggles they face as they try to rebuild.
In celebration of Labor Day, we salute these and other local small businesses who fortify the economy with grassroots dollars. Dollars don’t grow on trees, they grow from the ground up.
Happy Labor Day
