Louisiana Recovery News 10.16.06 To navigate this document, please open your bookmarks to the left.

NATIONAL NEWS 1. Houston Chronicle, Katrina’s Aftermath: FEMA extends housing benefits for some 15,000 evacuee families; A workshop today will provide simplified forms and other aid, Mike Snyder, October 13, 2006 2. Chicago Tribune, No hiding from this meltdown, William Hageman, October 15, 2006 3. Chicago Tribune, Storm tours: A feeling for New Orleans; A strange curiosity draws visitors to the other side of a good-times city, Howard Shapiro, October 15, 2006

LOCAL NEWS 1. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Planning meetings objectives questioned; Some say challenges differ by neighborhood, Michelle Krupa, October 15, 2006 2. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Local United Way focuses on post-Katrina recovery; It's supporting efforts of grass-roots groups, Valerie Faciane, October 16, 2006 3. The Louisiana Weekly, Seniors exempt from Road Home penalties, October 16, 2006 4. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Rising Rent, Jeffrey Meitrodt, October 15, 2006 5. New Orleans CityBusiness, Port of N.O. reduces loss claim by $35M, October 16, 2006 6. New Orleans CityBusiness, Recovery czar possibly to be considered by City Council, Deon Roberts, October 16, 2006 7. Associated Press Newswires, Cruise ships return to New Orleans; Norwegian Sun makes first regularly scheduled stop since Hurricane Katrina, Janet McConnaughey, October 15, 2006 8. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Foreigners tapped to fill nursing gap; Post-storm conditions hurt recruiting in U.S., Kate Moran, October 15, 2006 9. Bayou Buzz, Louisiana Governor Blanco, Insurance Commissioner Homeowner’s Relief, October 13, 2006 10. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sewage may be coast's savior ; N.O., St. Bernard are pursuing project, Matthew Brown, October 16, 2006 11. Associated Press Newswires, Fans of Eagles & Saints team up to clean N.O. neighborhood, October 14, 2006 12. New Orleans Times-Picayune, To desert or protect? CNN reporter embedded with NOPD after Katrina saw the dilemma up close, Dave Walker, October 14, 2006 13. New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans Film Festival: A Katrina survivor, Michael H. Kleinschrodt, October 13, 2006

OP-EDS/EDITORIALS 1. The Baton Rouge Advocate, LTE: Hate for Louisiana Recovery Authority, October 14, 2006 2. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: Put Entergy ratepayers first, October 14, 2006 3. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: A fresh start, October 16, 2006 4. The Baton Rouge Advocate, Editorial: Dueling proposals on insurance relief, October 15, 2006 5. The Daily Advertiser, Editorial: Where's the health-care money?, October 13, 2006 6. The Daily Advertiser, Editorial: Insurance crisis has roots in past, October 16, 2006 7. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: Where's the chemo for crime?, October 15, 2006

NATIONAL NEWS Katrina’s Aftermath: FEMA extends housing benefits for some 15,000 evacuee families; A workshop today will provide simplified forms and other aid Houston Chronicle October 13, 2006 By Mike Snyder

About 15,000 hurricane evacuee families threatened with potential homelessness in Houston will continue to receive federal housing assistance through February, officials said Thursday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision to lift an Oct. 31 deadline for evacuees to "recertify" their eligibility averts what could have been the worst crisis since evacuees began streaming into Houston more than a year ago, advocates said. "This is a huge victory for the evacuees," said Bob Fleming, who oversees Catholic Charities' assistance program for people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Most of the estimated 21,000 Houston households still receiving FEMA housing assistance had not submitted the required forms to prove they remain eligible, including rent receipts and other documents that many evacuees had difficulty finding, city and FEMA officials said. Among those who had submitted documents, few had been approved and many had been returned for more information. FEMA is now asking evacuees to complete a simple, one-page form with basic identifying information, current income, job-search information and a declaration that the evacuee still needs rental assistance. Spokesman Don Jacks said FEMA expects all evacuee households to submit the form, but failure to do so would not result in a loss of assistance.

Workshops Thursday and today at the George R. Brown Convention Center initially focused on recertification but shifted to helping people find jobs and providing other services. Sandra Henry, 54, and her sister, Patricia Crumedy, 53, came to Thursday's workshop with a case full of documents they thought they would need to obtain recertification. They quickly filled out the simplified form and said they were grateful for FEMA's decision. "That was a blessing," Henry said. "Houston has just been a blessing for us." Crumedy wept as she described the stress brought on by uncertainty about a place to live and the difficulty in making arrangements to move back to New Orleans, where her home was destroyed by Katrina. She said she had struggled for years to save money for a home of her own. "To finally get something and see it washed away - it's depressing," Crumedy said.

Jacks said FEMA decided to drop the deadline and simplify recertification because its previous efforts to obtain the necessary documents from evacuees had not been successful. Relieved of the anxiety of worrying about keeping a roof over their heads, the evacuees can use the next five months to find jobs and otherwise stabilize their lives, Fleming said.

No hiding from this meltdown Chicago Tribune October 15, 2006 By William Hageman

Even people he never met recognized that Chris Rose was in trouble. They read what Rose, a columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, was writing in the aftermath Hurricane Katrina. And these strangers e-mailed him. "They could tell just from reading my stories that I was in a world of hurt," Rose said. "And I had failed to recognize that. I thought I was just depressed in a non-clinical sense." But it was a lot more than that.

Months of living in the post-Katrina horrors of New Orleans had had a psychological effect. He finally got help at the urging of his family, editor and friends. And those strangers. "I had been of the culture that thought that antidepressant medication worked for desperate housewives and that psychiatry was for other people. . . . I never bought into the notion that there were physiological or biological or biochemical agents at work to create emotional despair. But I'm here to tell you that there's a pill . . .

"I hate to be a drug pusher, but when I bottomed out this summer I was in the ultimate despair, willing to walk away from my marriage, willing to pretty much let everything go. . . . But I sought professional help. I was put on a prescription. And 18 hours later the whole freakin' world turned upside down, and I was thinking, what was I putting this off for?"

Rose is in the process of writing his story--"my fall into the rabbit hole and my crawling back out," he calls it--that will eventually appear in the Times-Picayune. He also is coming to Chicago to promote his book "1 Dead in Attic," a collection of columns he wrote after Katrina struck. Proceeds are being shared with the Tipitina Foundation and to ARTDOCS, groups helping artists recover from Katrina. He and wife Kelly "thought we'd raise a thousand dollars for the Tipitina Foundation, a thousand dollars for ARTDOCS, and we'd have enough money to buy a new refrigerator. Well, 65,000 books later we've cut checks for $25,000 to those organizations and have gotten ourselves a new refrigerator and a new stove."

Rose's reading is Oct. 22 at Kraft Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. There also will be a slide show of Katrina photos and refreshments donated by Heaven on Seven. "Like anything else with New Orleans, you know, we're not just gonna sit and sign books and collect money," Rose said. "We're gonna eat, we're gonna drink, I'm going to get up and talk, make people cry a little, make people laugh a little. And hopefully leave a couple hundred books behind in Chicago that'll help tell our story. Obviously there's still a great deal of misunderstanding what happened here. The answers aren't simple."

Storm tours: A feeling for New Orleans; A strange curiosity draws visitors to the other side of a good-times city Chicago Tribune October 15, 2006 By Howard Shapiro

NEW ORLEANS - Here's the strangest thing: The New Orleans that people always came here to visit is still here, either virtually untouched or already renewed from relatively minor damage. I had a good time in New Orleans over four days. I ate well. I heard fabulous music. I grumbled to myself about the ridiculous August heat and humidity but bopped around town nevertheless.

Other tourists appeared to do the same, but not many. On a normal summer pre-Katrina day, the city was never jammed because it's low season in hot weather; nowadays, the season is lower than ever.

Still, the place is irresistible, heat or not. I took a fascinating Gray Line walking tour of the elegant Garden District with six other visitors, and we ooohed at its graceful homes, which had mostly suffered minor damage and have been repaired.

I took a French Quarter history and architecture tour--the Quarter holds the city's essential history, having flown under French, Spanish, Confederate and United States flags--and it was a freebie. The Quarter has a National Historical Park, the tiny Jean Lafitte park, and one of its rangers, Danny Forbis, led 15 of us around.

When we stood under a gazebo at the Mississippi River bank and Forbis talked about our being on the city's highest land--about 25 feet above sea level--I looked along the downward sweep of St. Louis Street, and for the first time I understood how New Orleans is built in a big bowl.

I walked all over the French Quarter on my own and enjoyed its cacophony and smells and iron-wrought gentility, its architectural delights and the way it has of turning a crumbling, faded wall or rickety street into a piece of American history. I also enjoyed its lack of human crunch, even though a crowd gives the place its electric ambience. (For the record, I roamed the city anonymously, not identifying myself as a reporter.)

You could go to New Orleans today and party yourself silly, eating and drinking and dancing until you roll out of town, and never face the bleak reality of many of the city's neighborhoods. But you cannot escape the constant signs and talk about what happened, and is still happening, here.

Not more than five minutes into my rental-car drive from Louis Armstrong International Airport into the French Quarter, the disc jockey on WWOZ, the FM station devoted to the city's musical cultures, was talking between cuts about the blurry future for musicians who remain, and the tourists who are not there to hear them.

The Storm, which is how people here generally refer to Hurricane Katrina, remains the city's leading and unavoidable news.

"I'm going to tell you a lot about that wicked storm that hit my city," Sandra Smith was saying. "You will see more devastation than you'll ever want to see in your entire life." She stood at the front of a big Gray Line bus, and about 50 of us were aboard.

The Hurricane Katrina Tour is by far the most popular on Gray Line's city tour list, much scaled back these days. We paid $35 apiece, and $3 of that will go to a local charity we chose from a short list.

Smith, a pleasant woman with good tour-guide gab, told us that "hopefully, we're going to see a lot of progress out there." To the first-time eye, it was hard to see much we could call progress.

As we rode, she told us her own story in bits and pieces, how she had left her French Quarter place and headed to the city's highest ground, where I'd been standing with the park ranger on the French Quarter tour. And how troops had evacuated her and others from their makeshift encampment to Houston.

When our big bus began cruising the main streets of the deserted neighborhoods--it was far too large to go down the smaller cross streets, where there was also little sign of life-- she pointed out some houses of people she knew, or knew about.

I was unprepared for the vastness of it, and other people commented that they were too. As I looked at this sadness and wondered how these neighborhoods could ever rebuild, Smith addressed my question in a startlingly concise way.

"You come back to your house," she said. "You look down your street. Every house is a wreck, like yours. The weeds are high, all over the place. And you look around, and it's totally empty. You're the only one around. What are you going to do? Are you going to be the only person living on your whole block or for blocks around? Are you going to come back? Are you going to walk away? These are decisions that people have to make, right now."

The next day, Stanley Bergeron's tour was a bit different. His Tours by Isabelle van was small, and he could get through places the big Gray Line bus could not. Unlike the big tour, we went into the worst-hit 9th Ward. (Worst-hit is a matter of perspective. Everything destroyed seems worst-hit.) Taking both tours, I found I was seeing most major neighborhoods of grief.

While the tours are drawing money for their operators, it was also clear that Bergeron and Smith wanted people to understand the terrible predicament their city is in--and see it through their eyes.

Bergeron's boss, Isabelle, had called him daily for weeks to get him back to work, and on this tour. "She said, `If we don't try to explain to people what happened, who will?' I thought it would get easier, doing this tour. I've been doing it about eight months. And it does not get easier."

I couldn't quite figure out the other part of this equation: Why do people want to take the tours? If you've ever been to the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, in Italy, frozen in time when Vesuvius erupted all over it 1,927 years ago, you know the eerie feeling of seeing a place where life ended, just like that. But a lot of digging has been going on over the centuries to reveal Pompeii's ancient mysteries. In New Orleans, those shattered homes and shattered lives could have been yours.

I asked Bergeron why people were taking the tour. He didn't seem to think it had anything to do with morbidity or sensationalism. "Maybe curiosity. Understanding, too," he said. "The analogy I use is a car accident. Nobody really wants to see a car accident. But if you're on the highway and you pass by one, what do you do, automatically? You slow down. It's there, and you want to see it. You want to get a feeling for it."

Back in the comfort of the French Quarter, Bergeron told us that when tours ended, "I used to tell people, `I hope you had a good time.' I don't do that no more. I don't expect you to have a good time. I don't have a good time."

IF YOU GO

STAYING THERE If you are a member of a hotel chain club, or use the Web, call up your hotel of choice to check prices--which can be real bargains now but will probably rise as more conventions and visitors begin coming to town now that summer has ended. Try to stay in or near the French Quarter, the heart of major sites in New Orleans.

DINING Virtually all of the nation's favorite New Orleans restaurants are open, and the best way to plan a meal is to peruse menus as you walk by them--which you're bound to do in the French Quarter or other areas.

INSIDER INFO Don't just stick to the French Quarter or Garden District. New Orleans has many fine museums, including art museums, house museums devoted to niche subjects--and the National World War II Museum, which focuses on D-Day. And, of course . . .

STORM TOURS Several tours will take you through the parts of New Orleans hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Generally, they are guided by New Orleans residents who were affected by the storm. Here are some tours dedicated to the disaster.

Gray Line: The Web site says that Gray Line began its Katrina bus tour when members of Congress who had resisted funding the rebuilding of the city "changed their mind after seeing all the devastation" and that they're offering the tour to similarly educate the public. 3 hours, at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. daily. $35. 800-535-7786; www.graylineneworleans.com .

Tours by Isabelle: In a van that accommodates 12 visitors, the 3 1/2-hour tour goes through the city's worst-hit areas. 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. daily. $53. 877-665-8687; www.toursbyisabelle.com .

Cajun Encounters: This Katrina tour, which also visits one of New Orleans' above-ground city cemeteries, goes in a mini-bus that seats 33. 2 1/2 hours. 9:30 a.m. daily. $42. 866- 928-6877; cajunencounters.com.

Celebration Tours: This tour in a 12-passenger van goes to devastated areas and concludes on a positive note, in the Garden District. 2 1/2 hours. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. $45. 504-587-7115.

LOCAL NEWS Planning meetings objectives questioned; Some say challenges differ by neighborhood New Orleans Times-Picayune October 15, 2006 By Michelle Krupa

As residents sat down Saturday to create yet another plan for New Orleans' revival, few questioned whether the city needs a formal road map to guide its recovery.

But at meetings covering 13 planning districts across the city, including relatively undamaged areas, participants complained that nearly 14 months after Hurricane Katrina, they are being asked to re-create the sort of priority lists that already have been drawn up by civic groups, professional planners and a City Council-sponsored process directed at the hardest-hit neighborhoods.

Although residents at some sessions said they were satisfied with Saturday's programs, which centered mainly on selecting group leaders and considering what issues should be tackled, others questioned the goals of the Unified New Orleans Plan, a $5.5 million project that is slated to wrap up by mid-January.

Among their doubts was whether the final plan will fulfill organizers' goal of equitably merging wish lists for infrastructure repairs in neighborhoods that sat in floodwaters for weeks and those that were relatively unscathed.

"As much as we want to be part of a unified plan, Katrina, in all her destruction, made us all so different," said Claude Reese, who attended a session that covered three planning districts in eastern New Orleans. "How are you going to bring the wet parts and the dry parts together in one plan?"

No choice Responding later to the question, Steven Bingler, who is coordinating the new project's consultants, said the unified plan will come together by necessity. It will focus on challenges in unflooded areas, such as denser population and overtaxed infrastructure, as well as on the catastrophic problems of places that were swamped, he said.

"We don't have a choice," Bingler said. "The wet and the dry neighborhoods have different needs, but every single neighborhood was impacted. Katrina was more than a flood. We can't judge everything by how much water."

He added, "The last thing we need in New Orleans is another reason to be divided."

Organizers said that despite a multitude of neighborhood plans that originated in the vacuum of official planning following the storm, the city must deliver a single, comprehensive report to the Louisiana Recovery Authority, as well as to other government and private agencies. That plan is likely to determine how much money New Orleans will get to restore basic infrastructure and community resources, such as schools and parks.

"This is the plan that turns on the spigot for the dollars," said Jesse Wiles, a housing consultant who led the eastern New Orleans meeting at the University of New Orleans- Lindy Boggs Conference Center.

More gatherings planned To build on Saturday's sessions, which drew an estimated 1,500 residents, six planning exercises will be held in coming months. They will alternate between district-level meetings that focus on block-by-block needs and citywide community congress gatherings that tackle overall infrastructure priorities in areas such as education and transit.

A final recovery blueprint will be delivered to the City Planning Commission early next year. That plan may be modified by City Council members or Mayor Ray Nagin before it is forwarded to the LRA and other agencies.

Though the Unified New Orleans Plan will become the newest document in a sea of planning reports, organizers said the "UNOP," as it's been dubbed, will embrace all other existing plans.

"We've committed to working with every single plan that's been developed," architect Allen Eskew told about 150 residents of the 3rd Planning District, which encompasses a swath of Uptown surrounding Tulane and Loyola universities. "We will take everything that has been developed to date, we'll roll it together, and we'll do a gap analysis to see what's missing.

Doubts remain But John McKnight, a longtime Gert Town resident who attended the 4th Planning District meeting at First Baptist Church on Canal Boulevard, said that although he expects good things from a unified plan, he is nervous that ideas already crafted by his neighborhood through the City Council process may be cast aside.

"What's in our plan is what we want," McKnight said. "I'm optimistic, (but) I don't know where they're coming from yet. Are they satisfied with our plan, or are they a meat- chopping crew?"

Residents at the session for eastern New Orleans, which comprises about half the city's land area and remains a virtual ghost town, also worried that starting another planning process could further delay the restoration of phone, electricity and other basic services, as well as the reopening of schools, playgrounds, stores, banks and hospitals.

Michael Lewis, who lives in the Castle Manor subdivision, said that in the absence of recreational activities, children have taken to playing in vacant houses.

"Everybody has a plan," he said. "Let's make it work."

Bingler said he and other organizers of the unified plan met last week with federal Gulf Coast recovery czar Donald Powell and officials of the LRA and Federal Emergency Management Agency, and implored them not to interrupt about 3,000 ongoing infrastructure projects while the unified planning process gets under way. He also addressed concerns that the process will develop into an endless string of discussions with no substantive result.

"There is an end in sight," he said. "I think (that) is the most important message we can send to people today."

Although the 3rd Planning District meeting spent much of its time Saturday debating the confines of three "sectors" within its boundaries, Eskew described the tangible product he expects the group to generate.

"This a recovery plan that is best described as a project," he said at the meeting at Trinity Episcopal Church on Jackson Avenue. "It's got to be something you can put a line-item to, put a cost to and put a priority to."

Public housing complaints At the 4th District meeting, however, it became clear that the sprawling new effort will face skirmishes over how soon infrastructure money will flow and how the restoration of viable housing will be tackled.

Community activist Jay Arena peppered Bingler with questions about whether there will be a push to reopen shuttered public housing complexes. Arena, who said he represents the United Front for Affordable Housing, was angry about plans by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and two developers to raze and redevelop the Lafitte complex.

"The issue is much larger than public housing," Bingler said, noting there are ongoing discussions about how to meet the city's need for affordable housing.

Arena shot back, "This is a defining issue."

"Those decisions are going to be addressed in this planning process," Bingler said, "not from the top down, but from the bottom up."

Emotions also were charged over seemingly minor points, such as how to carve up the districts into sectors so more neighborhood leaders can be involved in ranking priorities. At the 3rd District meeting, Carolyn Bell of Hollygrove resisted the effort, saying it fostered division among neighborhoods that must unite to rebuild the city.

"Are we drawing lines based on needs of neighborhoods? Or are we drawing lines (based) on all helping each other?" Bell said. "Because if we're drawing lines based on 'I'm in Uptown, I'm in Hollygrove; I flooded, I didn't,' then I don't want to be a part of it."

Local United Way focuses on post-Katrina recovery; It's supporting efforts of grass- roots groups New Orleans Times-Picayune By Valerie Faciane October 16, 2006

To help speed the cleanup in three New Orleans neighborhoods, the United Way is trying to raise $500,000 to establish resource centers in churches where residents could swing by to borrow a rake or lawnmower or to obtain information on gutting their homes and other rebuilding services.

The centers will be modeled on the Beacon of Hope center that Denise Thornton established in her Lakewood South home in February with a $50,000 donation from former Hornets owner Ray Woolridge. United Way President Gary Ostroske said his agency is working on a plan to help New Orleans churches that are rebuilding to become Beacon of Hope resource centers to help their members. Ostroske also wants to bring the program to people living in FEMA trailers in the Diamond community of Plaquemines Parish.

Beacon of Hope is just one of the initiatives that the United Way is financing post- Katrina to help people recover. "We've gone out to find grass-roots organizations, take them and move to other parts of the city," Ostroske said.

Neighbors helping neighbors Thornton and her husband, Doug, were one of the first families to return to their neighborhood after Katrina dumped 7 feet of water in their home. As she struggled to get her home and life back together, Thornton realized that she could use her house as a resource to make her neighbors' return a bit smoother.

The property became a one-stop repository for rebuilding resources, including lists of reputable contractors, landscapers, plumbers and electricians. Residents could to borrow rakes, mowers, shelves, gloves, gardening tools, weed eaters and even a tractor. Hundreds of residents have used the equipment to clean their storm- ravaged lawns and tidy up their streets. They've also visited the center to use the fax machine or negotiate with utility companies for the return of basic services. The Lakeview Christian Center adopted the Lakewood neighborhoods and sent teams of volunteers in twice a week to use the lawn equipment to clean up neutral grounds and the properties of other homeowners. With a $35,000 grant from the United Way, Thornton used the money for equipment at seven more Beacon of Hope Centers in the city, including one at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Spreading the word To help spread the concept throughout the metro area, Ostroske went to New York about a month ago and met the Rev. Fred Lucas, president and CEO of the Faith Center for Community Development and a board member of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. They discussed how to create Beacons of Hope within the New Orleans area's faith-based communities, particularly in the African-American community.

The plan is to generate enough money to match a $250,000 grant from the Bush Clinton fund to help the churches in Gentilly, eastern New Orleans and the 9th Ward, Ostroske said. "We're in initial stages of acquiring funding for the plan," Ostroske said. "I think they're willing to consider $250,000 if we're able to come up with another $250,000 match on that money." Ostroske said he will approach various funding sources, including the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Louisiana Recovery Foundation. He said the United Way will also contribute. "That's why the 2006 campaign is so important," he said. He said Lucas' program in New York assists faith-based communities in such matters as land acquisition and management and then provides additional resources for community building, allowing them to improve services such child care. Ostroske said he thinks a similar program could be here by the end of this year if he can raise the matching funds.

Community center In the FEMA trailer community of Diamond, the United Way wants to create a small community center called Beacon of Hope in collaboration with the YMCA, Save the Children and Emergency Communities, a private nonprofit organization that is already working with United Way to provide meals, entertainment and other services in south Plaquemines. Meanwhile, Thornton said the satellite center at St. Paul's Episcopal Church will provide all of the services that other satellite centers offer, as well as accommodations for out-of-town volunteers, washers and dryers, case workers, two administrators, a notary public, real estate agents and representatives from the New Orleans Police Department's crime prevention unit.

The $20 million fundraising campaign kicked off in August and continues through March. The agency hopes to raise $14 million locally and $6 million nationally. For information about donating, call (504) 827-6824, log on to www.unitedwaynola.org or donate through payroll deductions at your workplace. For information about Beacon of Hope, call (504) 872-9873, send e- mail to [email protected] or visit the Web site at www.lakewoodbeacon.org .

Seniors exempt from Road Home penalties The Louisiana Weekly October 16, 2006

Senior citizens participating in The Road Home program will not be penalized if they decide to rent or choose to move out of state, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco announced last week. Based on feedback from The Road Home Pilot Program, an adjustment was made so that senior citizens, aged 65 and older, may receive their full Road Home awards and don't have to use the money to buy new houses if they decide to sell their homes to the state.

"We are working closely with families and individuals throughout the application process. I discovered that many of our senior citizens were often moving from their own homes and into assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Several seniors were choosing to move in with their children," Governor Blanco said. "I recognize that rebuilding and homeownership may not be the best choices for some seniors who have been displaced because of these storms. Today, we are introducing this new policy so our seniors can make the best personal choice for their future."

All homeowners whose primary residences suffered damages from either hurricane Katrina or Rita have three options under The Road Home program: stay in their homes, relocate in Louisiana, or sell and move out of state. Those choosing to or move out of the state would normally fall under the "sell" option where compensation is based on 60 percent of the pre-storm value minus compensation from other sources. Homeowners, age 65 years or older as of December 31, 2005, will now be exempt from the 60 percent penalty normally associated with the "sell" option. "This change will address major challenges facing seniors that were severely impacted. Now grandmothers and grandfathers can use this money for rental housing, assisted living or to move in with their children," explained Blanco. "These are the kinds of adjustments that we're making to continue improving the quality of The Road Home program."

The Road Home program is designed to help residents of Louisiana affected by Hurricane Katrina or Rita get back into their homes as quickly and fairly as possible. This groundbreaking program represents the largest single housing recovery program in U.S. history. Working together, Governor Blanco, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and the Office of Community Development created The Road Home Program to afford eligible homeowners up to $150,000 in compensation to get back into their homes.

To start your application to The Road Home program, visit www.road2LA.org or call 1.888.ROAD.2.LA (1.888.762.3252). TTY callers use 711 relay or 800.846.5277.

Rising Rent New Orleans Times-Picayune October 15, 2006 By Jeffrey Meitrodt

After putting her two-bedroom apartment in the Bywater on the market last month, Nicole Hartford's phone rang off the hook. More than 25 people wanted to rent the apartment, even though Hartford was asking $900 a month, almost twice what she got for the space before Katrina. The winning applicant was Marilyn Johnson, an unemployed fast- food worker who was desperate for a place to live. Johnson and her family were recently evicted from their temporary home in Lafayette, where they had evacuated after the hurricane, and were living in a hotel in New Orleans while looking for permanent housing.

Hartford said she decided to rent the apartment to Johnson because she felt sorry for her and because Johnson could afford to pay top dollar; she had a federal Section 8 voucher worth $964 a month in rental assistance. Johnson, who used to pay $40 a month for an apartment in the B.W. Cooper housing development, was shocked at the price. With just one cupboard in the kitchen, she doesn't have enough storage space. Her stepson is getting splinters from the unpainted bathroom door. The kitchen window doesn't lock. But it was the best deal she could find. "It's ridiculous," said Johnson, 25, who shares the apartment with two toddlers and her fiancee. "This is not a good neighborhood; it's dangerous. We've got drug dealers living in the neighborhood. I can't even let my kids play in the back yard. It's a nice house, but it's not worth $964."

Though the owner rented out a virtually identical unit on the other side of the duplex for $400 a month earlier this year, Hartford maintains that Johnson's rent is fair. "How many other properties can you go in and find hardwood floors and ceramic tiles and a refrigerator and a stove?" asked Hartford, who purchased the property for $6,500 in 1999. "I think it's a good deal in this market."

Johnson may be one of the lucky ones. According to advocates for affordable housing, thousands of former residents cannot move back to the city because of a metro-wide shortage of low-cost apartments. That's something New Orleans had plenty of before Katrina, when a third of renters paid $500 or less for their dwelling each month, according to U.S. Census data. Post-Katrina, the average advertised rate for apartments in Orleans Parish has skyrocketed 70 percent, from slightly under $800 to $1,357 a month, based on a survey of the published rents of more than 1,400 properties by The Times- Picayune. The survey covered all unfurnished apartments with quoted rental rates in the newspaper's weekly real-estate tab from nine periods in 2005 and 2006.

Rents also have leapt in the suburbs. In Jefferson Parish, units in large apartment complexes are typically fetching 40 percent more since Katrina, while smaller properties are usually commanding an 80 percent post-Katrina premium, the survey shows. Landlords also have raised rents in St. Tammany and the River Parishes, but hard data were unavailable. Said Henry Shane, who manages more than 8,000 rental units in Jefferson Parish: "I don't even know if you'll find a $500 rental anymore."

Varying rationales Some property owners blame rising rents on uninsured rebuilding expenses and higher insurance costs, while others say they are simply following the economic laws of supply and demand. Katrina destroyed or severely damaged about 60,000 apartments in Louisiana, and more than 43,000 were located in Orleans Parish, where 69 percent of the housing market was made up of old single- family homes with four or less apartments. Another 15,000 apartments were destroyed or severely damaged in Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes.

"We're just keeping up with what is going on with the rest of the rentals," said apartment owner Glenn Voges, who recently increased the rent at one of his New Orleans duplexes to $1,500 a month, up from $850 before Katrina.

As a result of the apartment crisis, experts say, the city is woefully short on employees for lower-wage service industry jobs such as cashiers, cooks and clerks. A recent report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution, which has been keeping close tabs on the city's recovery, said a lack of affordable housing is one of the biggest impediments to the rebirth of New Orleans.

"The lack of affordable housing is strangling our community," said law professor William Quigley, director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University. "How do you have food, music, culture? How do you have hospitals, schools and drugstores? Every one of our institutions is built on working class people who historically have been underpaid, but one of the excuses for underpaying people has been that New Orleans was a relatively low- cost place to live. It's not anymore."

Worst at the bottom The housing shortage is most acute at the bottom of the market. Yet at the other end of the housing spectrum, owners of more upscale rentals are dealing with greatly diminished demand for their properties. In the early part of 2006, luxury homes near Audubon Park were commanding as much as $4,000 a month, but landlords are now struggling to find tenants willing to pay such premiums for three- and four-bedroom rentals.

Pat Friend, who was hoping to get $3,250 for her three-bedroom apartment near Tulane and Loyola universities, recently leased the space for less than $2,000 a month after the apartment sat empty for three months. She said she actually got more for the apartment before Katrina. Dodie Powers had a similar problem with her property just around the corner, which was thoroughly renovated after sitting in six inches of water. Though she and her husband asked $2,400 for the three-bedroom unit when it was finally ready for occupants on Sept. 1, they agreed to rent it out for $2,000 last week. That's $500 more than the property earned before Katrina, but Powers thought she'd do better. "We had heard that you could get $800 or $1,000 per bedroom, which would have put our rent at close to $3,000, but it didn't pan out for us," Powers said. "I think we missed the market."

Real estate experts said there is plenty of housing available for those who can afford it. The problem, landlords said, is that the market is flooded with former residents who want to move home but don't yet have jobs, which makes them a risky bet. "I've got a lot of units," said Shane, chairman of 1st Lake Properties, which manages more than 8,000 high-end apartments in East Jefferson. "But if you don't have a job, if you don't have good credit, if you don't have banking relationships, our answer is going to be 'no.' So we're probably getting 10 applications before we get one renter. And that is unusual in this marketplace."

Before the storm, about half of the applications were approved, Shane said. Though Katrina damaged about 3,700 of his units, Shane has been able to put all but 500 of those apartments back into commerce. Rents were bumped up as much as $150 a month, but refurbished units usually disappear within four weeks, he said. Overall occupancy is running around 95 percent. Shane said his typical tenant makes $50,000 to $75,000 per year and has no trouble coming up with the monthly rent of around $900 for a one- bedroom unit. The company's most expensive units, a two- bedroom apartment with granite countertops and an attached garage, cost about $1,800 per month.

That's far outside the reach of most of his applicants, Shane said. "I am not filling the great need that needs to be filled right now, which is worker housing," Shane said. Before Katrina, it was relatively easy to find an apartment for under $500. In Orleans Parish, where rental prices were among the lowest among big cities in the nation, renters occupied more than 26,000 units priced below $500, or 32 percent of the total market, census figures from 2005 show. By comparison, such rentals accounted for 17 percent of the market in Jefferson and 14 percent in St. Tammany parishes, according to the Census Bureau.

Public housing hit One of the biggest suppliers of low-priced apartments was the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which typically charged residents $85 a month for an apartment at one of the city's public housing developments. But HANO has brought back just 1,100 of the 5,100 public housing units that were occupied before Katrina and plans to demolish the rest.

HANO hopes private companies will ultimately redevelop those properties, but it will take three to five years before the first of those announced projects is completed, and just 865 of the 1,500 units will be subsidized. In the meantime, residents must depend on the private market, but it's even harder to find a cheap deal there. In the rental-market survey, just nine apartments in Orleans and Jefferson parishes were offered for $500 or less in the newspaper's weekly real estate section this year, versus 243 for comparable periods in 2005. One of those properties sits on Chef Menteur Highway in eastern New Orleans, a section of town that is largely in ruins. Last year, a two-bedroom unit in the no-frills complex fetched $450 a month. Now they go for an average of $900.

For that much money before Katrina, someone could have rented a large French Quarter apartment with two bedrooms, hardwood floors, a balcony and access to a swimming pool. "We were surprised," said Elvin Lieona, a construction worker from Texas who moved into the unit this summer with three co- workers. "You pay $900 in Houston and you get a nice apartment. But look at this place."

Outside his front door in the parking lot, Lieona can see a pair of abandoned refrigerators and stacks of roofing shingles. Instead of blinds, the owners hung sheets of dingy fabric over the windows. The linoleum floors are streaked with grease, probably from the stack of construction equipment in the corner of the living room, and the bedroom door sticks. Despite the grim decor, Lieona said he was grateful to find the place. He said the next cheapest apartment would have cost the crew $1,600 a month. "This was the only place we could afford," Lieona said. Property owner Tha Danh declined to comment.

Real estate experts said construction workers such as Lieona have helped fuel higher rents by increasing demand at the worst possible time for evacuees who are trying to come home. Consultant Wade Ragas, former director of the Real Estate Market Data Center at the University of New Orleans, estimates there could be as many 30,000 temporary workers in the metro area.

"I think the number of construction workers will start declining as we move into the spring of next year," Ragas said. "By June, I think we'll see rent increases begin to subside and we'll see a lot more competition in the market." Louisiana Recovery Authority officials aren't as optimistic. Board member Sean Reilly believes it is going to take at least a year and a half for the market to start returning to normal, because it's going to take that long for landlords to repair a significant number of units. The LRA expects to hand out $1.6 billion in grants to help cover the cost of Katrina-related repairs in the apartment market, with some money flowing as soon as next month.

"There is clearly going to be a timing gap," Reilly said. "Right now, the need far outstrips the available supply. The market will reset itself, but it is going to take some time." Though LRA officials predict that the agency's Road Home program will spur the return of at least 42,000 apartment units in the New Orleans area, Quigley doesn't believe it. He said renters need as much help as homeowners, who stand to collect up to $7.5 billion in grants. "I don't think things are going to be different at all in a year and a half," Quigley said. "Most of the people interested in affordable housing are very underwhelmed by the Road Home program. It is too little, too late."

To keep up with rising rents, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently boosted the value of its housing vouchers by 35 percent in New Orleans. As a result, poor residents who qualify for a Section 8 voucher can now get $1,447 in rental assistance for a three-bedroom apartment, versus $1,073 before July 1.

Settling for less But finding apartments has been difficult. Though HANO has issued 5,300 vouchers since Katrina, just 2,900 have been used, according to HANO spokesman Adonis Expose. The problem, according to some tenants, is that HUD didn't make the new values retroactive. Tameyka Powell-Jackson, a nurse who rented a three-bedroom apartment on South Saratoga Street for $1,250 in May, said she has to scramble each month to find $177 for her landlord because her federal voucher covers just 85 percent of her rent.

Expose said Powell-Jackson and others who signed leases before July 1 must wait a year before the new rental assistance rates come into effect. For Powell-Jackson, that means no relief until next May at the soonest. "It's hard," said Powell-Jackson, 24, who has lived in subsidized housing her entire life. "I only bring home $300 a week and I'm a single mother who is trying to raise four children."

To make ends meet, Powell-Jackson recently told her kids they couldn't get school pictures because it would cost $80 she didn't have. She's a month behind on all of her bills and plans on getting rid of her cell phone. She pays a little bit down on her Entergy bill each week to avoid being disconnected. "I gave them my whole paycheck last week," Powell-Jackson said. "I don't even have gas money right now. I'm just living paycheck to paycheck. At one point it got so bad that I tried to kill myself."

Powell-Jackson wishes she could find a place where all of her rent would be covered by Section 8, but she's not hopeful. She talked to 30 landlords before she settled on her apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and it was the only place she could afford. It was also the only place where the landlord was willing to waive the security deposit. Powell-Jackson said Voges, who owns the property, also waived her share of the rent for the first two months. "He's a nice guy, the best landlord I came across," Powell- Jackson said. But she's not expecting a discount when the lease comes up for renewal next year. After the recent increase in vouchers, Voges decided to raise his rent on the other side of the duplex to $1,500. It was gone in a week.

Voges said the rental increases are strictly related to market demand. Though Katrina damaged both of his rental properties, insurance covered the damage. What's more, he said his rates didn't increase more than 5 to 10 percent this year. Other landlords have been less fortunate. Rose Geeck said she got stuck covering $9,000 in hurricane damage to her rental property in the Irish Channel. She said that explains why she nearly doubled the rent this year, from $425 to $800, for the two-bedroom apartment on St. Thomas Street. "I had to put a brand new roof on it, and I didn't have insurance," Geeck said. "It had to be my money."

Little gouging? Tammy Esponge, associate executive of the Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans, said it's hard to tell how much of this year's rent increases are related to rebuilding costs. While some landlords had plenty of insurance, others didn't, she said.

Overall, Esponge said rents have gone up about 40 percent for large apartment complexes. Much of that, she said, is related to the higher cost of insurance, which has increased as much as six times for some landlords. She said higher costs for labor and materials have also been a big factor. Service calls, for instance, now cost about $85, versus $35 pre-Katrina, landlords say. "I have not had one owner tell me they raised rents because they are trying to take advantage of the situation," Esponge said. "There are a handful of owners out there gouging their tenants, but no members of our association are gouging. If they are raising rents, they have a legitimate reason for doing it."

Port of N.O. reduces loss claim by $35M New Orleans CityBusiness October 16, 2006

The Port of New Orleans decreased its preliminary Katrina-related loss estimate from $164 million to $128.9 million after a meeting between the Port, the Louisiana Recovery Authority and Gulf Coast Recovery Chairman Donald Powell. The Port is negotiating with its excess insurer, Johnston, R.I.-based FM Global. Port officials anticipate the insurance company will cover most of the loss, said spokesman Chris Bonura.

“That estimate is a working number,” Bonura said. “(The figure) was reduced due to some of the properties that were slated for demolition like the Orange Street wharf that burned down.”

LRA spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said the LRA will pay 10 percent of the Port’s expected $22.5 million shortfall after all insurance claims are finalized — 90 percent will be matched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Recovery czar possibly to be considered by City Council New Orleans CityBusiness October 16, 2006 By Deon Roberts

The Office of Inspector General is not the only new department the city has been asked to create. Citizens are also asking for an Office of Recovery, an idea Mayor C. Ray Nagin is also pushing, to help the city rebuild quickly and efficiently from Hurricane Katrina. Some City Council members question how such an office would be funded. Nagin said he hopes to run the office through the budget process and open it before the end of the year.

New Orleans resident and lawyer Jeffrey Thomas was grilled by Councilwoman Cythnia Hedge-Morrell as he made an Oct. 5 presentation in support of the office. “Have you put a dollar amount on this office?” she asked Thomas. Thomas said he had not but government funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be used. “To me, a funding source is not, ‘I think FEMA can do it,’” Hedge-Morrell shot back. Hedge-Morrell said she supports the concept of the office. But the city has a limited amount of federal post-hurricane funding, she said.

Council President Oliver Thomas said FEMA funds cannot be used to operate city offices. Jeffrey Thomas said federal funds could be used for a “critical service” such as an Office of Recovery. He said the office is sorely needed to streamline the rebuilding of the city. Nagin said community development block grants and hazard mitigation dollars are other potential funding sources. “There’s I think 1 percent, or 2 percent, or 3 percent of that that can be used for administration. And we think that’s the source,” the mayor said.

The office could make sure city agencies comply with federal funding rules, said Jeffrey Thomas. Such a department could pair developers with neighborhood plans developers could cite in tax credit applications due Friday, he said. Not being able to cite such plans will cost New Orleans developers points in their applications, he said. The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency awards the tax credits to developers and scores applications based on a point system.

Councilwoman Stacy Head said she has been helping developers on an ad hoc basis. But Louisiana Recovery Authority rules and other regulations are hard to keep up with, she said. “I feel like I’m chasing, always,” she said. An Office of Recovery could alleviate the problem, she said. Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis said the city must make sure it doesn’t “duplicate efforts” or create more bureaucracy. Oliver Thomas directed Hedge-Morrell, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, and Head, chairwoman of the Public Works Committee, to meet with Nagin and iron out how to fund the office. Thomas then turned to assistant chief administrative officer Cary Grant and told him to be prepared: Any time another layer of government is proposed, Grant must explain how long-time city workers earning less than $7 an hour will be better compensated.•

Cruise ships return to New Orleans; Norwegian Sun makes first regularly scheduled stop since Hurricane Katrina Associated Press Newswires October 15, 2006 By Janet McConnaughey

NEW ORLEANS - Christian Baehr set out Sunday on his first long trip since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and he did it on the first cruise ship to make a regularly scheduled stop in the Crescent City since the storm.

"I really needed the getaway," said Baehr, of Long Beach, Mississippi, one of about 2,200 people who boarded the Norwegian Sun on Sunday for a voyage to Mexico and ports in Central America.

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005, hit hard at what had been a burgeoning business. Four cruise ships had used New Orleans as their home ports, including the Norwegian Dream, a smaller sister ship of the Sun. More than 700,000 passengers left and arrived through the Port of New Orleans in 2004.

In the first eight months of this year, the big cruise ships have made several one-time stops in New Orleans, serving 308,000 passengers, according to the International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry group.

The last regularly scheduled voyage in or out of the city was by the Carnival Sensation, which left just before Katrina. The Norwegian Sun is the first of four ships returning for regular cruises through the rest of this year and in 2007.

Among the passengers boarding Sunday was Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans.

As soon as Norwegian Cruise Line, owned by Genting Group of Malaysia, announced its return, he said, "I decided I was going to be on it. I'm taking my first vacation" since Hurricane Katrina.

LaGrange wore a suit and carried a briefcase, saying the trip would be at least as much play as work. "I brought books to read" -- all about baseball, he said.

He was in sharp contrast with Baehr, who wore denim shorts and a Hawaiian shirt printed with cockatoos, and was accompanied by about 50 friends and relatives. "We booked this in February so we could get all of us on together," he said.

By coincidence, the same day the Norwegian Sun left New Orleans, Norwegian crown Prince Haakon appeared in the city to mark the centennial of the Norwegian Seamen's Church.

Foreigners tapped to fill nursing gap; Post-storm conditions hurt recruiting in U.S. New Orleans Times-Picayune October 15, 2006 By Kate Moran

Pinched for nurses since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans-area hospitals have increased wages to capture a share of the local talent pool and in some cases have left beds empty for want of caregivers.

Now, several hospitals are looking abroad for help.

Rather than scrimmage for nurses in the tight local market, East Jefferson General Hospital dispatched its chief operating officer in August to the Philippines, a former U.S. territory that annually sends thousands of English-speaking nurses overseas.

Sixty-one Filipino nurses have agreed to trade in their meager wages for life in a struggling foreign city. The immigration process is arduous, however, involving a visa application, background check and a nursing certification exam, and some of East Jefferson's newest workers will not arrive for six months to a year.

Filipino nurses were brought to other local hospitals, including Ochsner Medical Center, during a nursing drought in the 1980s. Today, Ochsner, as well as Children's Hospital and possibly others, are seeking foreigners to help plug the nursing outflow that has hobbled the medical community since Katrina. The Louisiana State Board of Nursing tabulated that 4,800 nurses changed the address on their license in the 10 months after Katrina, and almost half of them moved out of state.

The shortage is not new to Louisiana or to the country as a whole. Janice Kishner, the chief operating officer and nurse executive at East Jefferson, said the profession has struggled to meet demand since the feminist revolution opened many other career paths to women beginning in the 1960s. Health-care delivery has also changed, as the advent of specialty-care clinics has drained nurses from their conventional berth at hospitals.

Crunch at colleges Kishner says there also has been a bottleneck at universities, which turn away nursing school applicants because of a perpetual shortage of instructors. That shortage has become more acute since Katrina, as higher wages have helped keep veteran nurses at hospitals when they might otherwise go into teaching. "We could have more students if we had more faculty," said Provost Patricia Egers of Delgado Community College, where nursing enrollment is down about 11 percent since the storm. "We used to find people at the last minute, but the hospitals cannot help us because they are short-staffed too." Hospitals have struggled to retain seasoned nurses and recruit new ones from out of state as housing prices have escalated since Katrina. Many departing nurses followed spouses to new jobs outside the region, or simply decided that the emotional demands of caring for patients while rebuilding their own flooded house were too much to handle.

Many hospitals replenished their depleted ranks -- East Jefferson alone lost 800 employees, many of them nurses -- by hiring staff from damaged hospitals that failed to reopen after Katrina. But by snapping up nurses from other institutions, these hospitals exposed themselves to high turnover as employers have started to reopen beds and call back their former employees. The mixing of staff from various hospitals sometimes resulted in a culture clash when nurses discovered that dress codes were more stringent or operating procedures different at their new hospital. Such changes, combined with mandatory overtime, weekend shifts and other measures to cope with shortage of staff, have made work particularly stressful these days. "Hospitals are hard places to work now," Egers said. "It is very frustrating because you go into this business to care for people, and when you don't have time to do that, you don't feel good at the end of the day. That loss of patient contact hurts." Management has tried to cobble together solutions while keeping nurses happy. Touro Infirmary created a pool of flexible nurses who shuttle among various wards, depending on where need is greatest. Children's Hospital, which lost about a third of its 480 nurses, has trained nurses accustomed to treating adults in the nuances of working with children.

Traveling nurses

And almost every hospital in the area has resorted to hiring traveling nurses, who receive premium salaries but no fringe benefits. Ochsner Health System lost about one third of its nurses after Katrina and, at a high point in January, was relying on 74 nurses from staffing agencies. That number has since dropped to 30.

But nursing executives say even traveling nurses, for whom New Orleans is usually a popular destination in the fall and winter, are discouraged from coming here by perceptions about poor quality of life. And even when they can be lured here, agency nurses are not exactly ideal for the hospitals.

"They are qualified people who have been through the same screening process as our own staff," said Joan Williams, vice president for human resources at Touro Infirmary. "The disadvantage has to do with continuity of care. We prefer having a nurse who works here all the time and knows the system and how to get the things she needs."

Nancy Davis, Ochsner's senior vice president and chief nursing officer, went to a job fair in Houston six weeks ago to hire permanent staff but was rebuffed by nurses who said they would be "nuts" to leave Texas for post-disaster conditions in the New Orleans area. With such recruitment challenges at home, Ochsner and at least one other local hospital are also exploring whether to hire from abroad.

Lawanda Gordon, vice president for nursing at Children's Hospital, has been meeting with an international agency that pulls nurses from English-speaking countries such as Canada, Ireland, South Africa, India and the Philippines.

Gordon said Children's Hospital lost about a third of its nurses after Katrina. She is plugging the gaps with about 35 agency nurses but needs twice that number to be fully staffed. "It's mind-boggling," she said.

East Jefferson likewise has beds that will remain out of commerce until more nurses arrive. Its vacancy rate for nurses is 9 percent, up from 2 percent to 3 percent before Katrina, and Kishner has had to use agency nurses to plug the gaps.

Big pay shift While recruitment from the Philippines is slow, cumbersome and expensive, Kishner estimates the hospital will save 40 percent on labor costs with foreign nurses compared with agency nurses.

Still, they are no bargain. Filipino nurses earn about $3 a day in their native country, but East Jefferson has promised to pay the prevailing local wage for the New Orleans region: about $28 an hour plus benefits. In exchange, the nurse recruits have pledged to stay for at least three years.

Before the nurses arrive, they must submit to background checks and pass a credentialing exam required by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing. They also must have a bachelor of science degree with an English curriculum and pass the U.S. board certification exam.

Several among the 61 imported nurses have credentials above and beyond what is required: They are medical doctors who will earn more here as nurses than they would at home as physicians.

"We do not have enough nurses in the metro area to cover our needs," said Davis, of Ochsner. "The Filipino nurses will be a good thing for the community because they will stay. They are not coming for a year or two and moving back home. They are looking to immigrate."

Louisiana Governor Blanco, Insurance Commissioner Homeowner’s Relief Bayou Buzz October 13, 2006

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon are touting homeowners insurance relief. In a press release, the two have stated the following:

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon stood together this week, united in their commitment to make insurance for property owners more affordable. This after Governor Blanco unveiled an insurance rate relief plan to assist Louisiana ratepayers assessed by Louisiana Citizens Insurance Corporation (LA Citizens).

"We need insurance rate relief and we need it now," Governor Blanco said. "Affordable insurance is a must if Louisiana is going to continue its recovery. What good is it to help homeowners rebuild if they cannot afford the insurance they need? That´s why I´m committed to refund the LA Citizens assessment to every homeowner in the state."

To provide rate relief, Governor Blanco proposed to cover the LA Citizens debt obligation, using $50 million from the state´s emergency response fund, funds from the anticipated budget surplus, and passing a Constitutional Amendment to securitize the remaining 40 percent of the tobacco settlement funds. This allows every homeowner in Louisiana a voice in the matter.

This week, Commissioner Donelon gave his endorsement of this plan, pledging to work with Governor Blanco to make it happen.

"I support the governor´s plan to assist policyholders with the cost of their homeowners insurance and appreciate her hands on leadership," Donelon said. "This is the right thing to do. Working together, I know we will get through the insurance crisis we all face."

On Thursday, Blanco and Donelon met with the Coalition to Insure Louisiana, a group of 31 professional and business organizations aimed at tackling the state´s insurance crisis. It was the latest in a series of discussions the governor has held in the past few months with various sectors of the insurance industry.

Governor Blanco and Commissioner Donelon have used these meetings to tout their efforts to reduce risk in Louisiana. Through strong statewide building codes, stronger levees, coastal restoration and hurricane protection, they are working to make the state a stable and secure environment for consumers and insurers.

Sewage may be coast's savior; N.O., St. Bernard are pursuing project New Orleans Times-Picayune October 16, 2006 By Matthew Brown

Tens of millions of gallons of treated sewage from New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish would be pumped into severely eroded coastal marshes to the east of the city under a plan to revitalize 10,000 of acres of wetlands by giving them a nutrient-rich jolt of wastewater.

The $40 million project would create the largest "wetlands treatment" system of its kind in the world, according to New Orleans and St. Bernard officials and state scientists familiar with the plan. It is being pursued by the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board in conjunction with St. Bernard.

The project, which is still being refined, calls for diverting sewage plant discharge that now ends up in the Mississippi River and instead pumping it into wetlands in the vicinity of Bayou Bienvenue. That area once was a dense cypress forest that served as a buffer against Gulf of Mexico hurricanes. But in recent decades, lethal doses of salt water intruded into the wetlands and levees cut off nutrients from the Mississippi. The 30,000- acre area has degenerated into scrub marsh broken up by large swaths of open water.

Backers of the plan compare piping in treated wastewater to delivering a steady stream of liquid fertilizer. They say it would accelerate plant growth and, eventually, reverse decades of erosion.

Despite the image of environmental disaster evoked by up to 100 million gallons of treated sewage daily flowing into wetlands, water board officials insist it would be safe for humans and wildlife. Sarah Mack, the S&WB environmental scientist developing the project, said "there are no public health hazards associated" with the proposed system.

"It's not raw sewage; it's treated, it's disinfected and it's checked for toxins," said John Day, a Louisiana State University ecologist acting as an adviser on the project for St. Bernard and the S&WB. "We could rebuild those wetlands and enhance that natural system. . . . There were once thousands of acres of cypress forest out there. Had those been in place during Hurricane Katrina, the amount of flooding would have been much less."

Similar projects have been cropping up across south Louisiana in recent years as municipalities try to reconcile increasing sewage- treatment costs with the dire need to restore the coast's wetlands. Yet none of the other wetlands treatment systems -- including facilities in Thibodaux and Breaux Bridge and pending projects in Mandeville, Hammond and St. Charles Parish -- comes close to the size of the New Orleans-St. Bernard proposal.

Chris Piehler, a senior environmental scientist with the Department of Environmental Quality, said his agency would require close monitoring of the project, but added that the existing systems suggest it would work as promoted.

"DEQ first issued a permit for this type of approach in 1991, for the city of Thibodaux, and Breaux Bridge has been using this for over 50 years," Piehler said. "In none of these cases have we seen the activity detrimental to a wetlands area."

Federal aid sought

St. Bernard and the S&WB are seeking the $40 million needed to build the project through a federal program intended to offset impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration, the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). Water board Executive Director Marcia St. Martin said the cost of building the system would not be passed to customers.

Most of the money likely would go toward construction of a distribution system for the wastewater, including pumping stations to get it out of the plant, Mack said. She added that a precise breakdown has not yet been developed and that details of the project still are being worked out.

As the S&WB rebuilds sewer and water lines heavily damaged by Katrina, environmental affairs chief Gordon Austin said, the wetlands project offers "an opportunity to do the right thing." S&WB officials said the plan could eventually save the financially strapped agency $2 million a year in treatment costs and restore at least 10,000 acres of marsh.

The system would tap into the S&WB's East Bank Sewage Treatment Plant in the Lower 9th Ward, and at least one treatment plant in St. Bernard. Wastewater discharge, or effluent, containing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus would be piped into the marshes at multiple locations along the 40 Arpent Canal.

"This is a viable resource that should be utilized. To put it in the river is a miscarriage if the marsh could benefit," Austin said.

St. Bernard fisher George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fishermen's Association, said the project sounded promising -- as long as there was no risk of contamination to seafood harvested from local waterways. Just as important, he said, is for the S&WB and St. Bernard officials to make sure that message gets to the public.

"Perception becomes reality," he said. "It's treated material, but once the media get ahold of it, and once it's labeled, like the 'toxic soup' after the storm, we'll have to spend millions of dollars to fix something that shouldn't have started."

Backed by Sierra Club

Before the treated sewage is piped out to the marshes, Austin said, it would go through the same two-stage treatment process as currently used: a mechanical treatment to remove most solids, followed by a biological treatment to kill off potentially harmful bacteria.

The flow of treated wastewater also would augment efforts to push back saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico that reached Bayou Bienvenue via the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet shipping channel. High salinity levels brought on by the shipping channel are blamed for killing off almost 30,000 acres of wetlands in the area over the past 40 years.

Scientists contend wetlands blunt the destructive power of major storms by acting as a source of friction to decrease storm surge and absorb high winds. That was seen during Katrina when levees fronting the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet held fast along some sections that were behind wetlands. Multiple breaches in the levee occurred along exposed sections.

LSU's Day predicted that if widespread tree planting accompanies the wetlands treatment plan, stands of 30-foot-high cypress could be restored to the area within a decade. "Relatively quickly, you can have a nice forest there that assumes the role of reducing storm surge," he said.

The project has been embraced by the local chapter of the Sierra Club, according to group spokesman Darryl Malek-Wiley, who called it "good for everybody" because it saves money for the S&WB while restoring a vital section of coast.

CIAP, the program eyed as a financing source for the project, is expected to allocate $523 million over the next four years. That's versus more than $3.7 billion requested for 300 projects in Louisiana.

Despite the steep competition, the wetlands treatment plan has a "good chance" of getting at least some of the $40 million, said DNR's Greg Grandy, who is coordinating the selection process. At the request of DNR, organizers of the wetlands treatment project have submitted slimmed-down alternatives costing either $10 million or $20 million.

"It's really a great project that they put together," Grandy said. "It has very good potential. Obviously, you get more acreage over time" from a larger project.

Grandy said he was told $10 million would be enough to build a system that would restore an estimated 2,300 acres, and the $20 million option could restore an estimated 4,500 acres.

Fans of Eagles & Saints team up to clean N.O. neighborhood Associated Press Newswires October 14, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Football fans from Philadelphia and New Orleans were on the same side Saturday, filling hundreds of bags of trash in an inner-city neighborhood hit by Hurricane Katrina more than a year ago.

They weren't forgetting that on Sunday, they'd be cheering for opposing teams as the Saints hosted the Eagles in the Superdome, less than a mile away.

"Everybody's claiming tomorrow's the day everybody's going to see the Saints are the best team in the league. Of course, we're not letting them get away with it," said Craig Chenosky, a founder of The Green Legion, which bills itself as the largest traveling Eagles fan club. "It's all good-natured."

The Green Legion's weekend also includes a tailgate party Sunday morning on Bourbon Street and a parade from there to the Superdome with the Eagles pep band, a high school marching band, stilt walkers, big head walkers and people in costumes.

Chenosky and local organizer Susan Henry said more than 200 people showed up for the cleanup, roughly half from each city. The Eagles fans were among 500 who traveled from Philadelphia, Chenosky said.

So many people worked so hard that the 300 bags local Henry had brought turned out to be too few. A neighborhood store sold them bags even bigger than contractors' bags, Henry said. Measuring against a 5-foot-9 volunteer, she estimated the new bags were 5 1/2 feet long.

"We've been going into the Chicken Mart, and we've bought every bag they have. Twelve dollars worth of bags. The guy's giving us a deal because we're cleaning his parking lot, too," said Henry, whose group, Grime 'n Roses, was created to clean up crime-ridden areas and plant rose gardens in memory of people killed at those sites.

The first will be in the 3-foot-wide strip between the sidewalk and street, wrapping around the corner where five young men were gunned down in June.

She already has given hundreds of potted roses, supplied by a group based in Riverside, Calif., to families whose houses were flooded. Californian Lee Stevens, who organized the group called Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens, approved the new use, Henry said.

"We asked if we could do these memorial gardens, and they said fine. We're also giving roses to every police and fire district, too," she said.

Although this garden will consist of four rose bushes on one 40-foot strip and two along 25 feet on the cross street, the cleanup went much farther -- about 30 square blocks, including sidewalks and the wide median.

"Everybody's sweating. We're putting in some good hours," Chenosky said.

To desert or protect? CNN reporter embedded with NOPD after Katrina saw the dilemma up close New Orleans Times-Picayune October 14, 2006 By Dave Walker

Based on its title alone, it's safe to assume that "CNN Presents: Shoot to Kill" presents a harsher view of Hurricane Katrina law and disorder than recent anniversary efforts by either "Dr. Phil" McGraw or Spike Lee.

Completed in time for CNN's Katrina anniversary coverage, the documentary about the New Orleans Police Department was bumped by breaking news.

Barring another outbreak of same, it's scheduled to air tonight at 7 with a repeat in the same time slot Sunday.

The view it presents of the city's inundated streets -- rampant looting and an array of alleged NOPD failings -- is far more bleak than the visions offered by either McGraw, who essentially lionized local peace officers in two update episodes of his daytime talk show, or Lee, whose "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" for HBO downplayed the avaricious lawlessness that emerged from the levee-failure floodwater.

CNN correspondent Drew Griffin essentially embedded with NOPD teams immediately after the storm, so his report's depiction of police actions during that terrible time isn't entirely unsympathetic.

But its later focus on the alleged post-K police shootings of Danny Brumfield outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and Ronald Madison on the Danziger Bridge -- as well as widespread desertion and alleged looting by officers -- is inexorably damning.

"We were (there) and we saw the collapse of order," Griffin said in a recent phone interview. "We physically felt the fear along with the police officers, who we could see were fearful and didn't know where to go.

"You do have to look at what was happening in that city, and what happened in the Police Department. In fact, officers were under extreme emotional and physical pressure. Many had lost their homes. They thought they were losing their city.

"There's no question there was tragedy. The question is, why?"

Griffin and his crew rode out Katrina's landfall in a Hattiesburg, Miss., motel, then worked their way toward New Orleans documenting road-clearing efforts en route.

Once arriving in the city, he stayed for three weeks before rotating out, but returned and kept returning for most of a year. His reporting on suspected patient euthanasia at Memorial Medical Center was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Given the stakes, Griffin's access to officers and police officials signals a stab at local transparency.

"Obviously, (the officers who) face possible criminal charges were advised not to talk (but) the NOPD doesn't believe it has anything to hide, warts and all," Griffin said. "The New Orleans police officers were eager to tell their stories to us."

Superintendent Warren Riley "admitted that this is a police department with a past, that still has problems and problem officers," Griffin said. "They're not hidden problems in New Orleans. They're all right out in the open."

The question that underlies the documentary is whether those problems -- many of which predate Katrina -- can be resolved.

"Is this something that's ho-hum, overlooked, 'Whatever happened in Katrina stays in Katrina'? Or is this beginning of fundamental change?" Griffin said.

His impression is that it's more likely the former than latter.

"I'm a news reporter. I'm not a cop," he said. "All I can tell you is what I've heard from them, from the NOPD themselves. There's a lot of guys who thought this would finally be the reformation of the NOPD, and I don't think it's happened.

"As far as I can tell (Riley) has so many problems on his hands, that to try to transform the NOPD at the same time he's trying to open up precinct houses and get the money for (replacement) police cars, that it's just not going to happen this go-round.

"I'm afraid that a lot of the institutionalized, hand-me-down corruption continues.

"Not to take away anything from the brave officers doing their jobs, but I think if you have a beer with them, they'll be honest with you and tell you there is a significant problem."

New Orleans Film Festival: A Katrina survivor New Orleans Times-Picayune October 13, 2006 By Michael H. Kleinschrodt

The year after Hurricane Katrina has been marked by a series of firsts: the first Mardi Gras, the first Jazzfest, the first Saints game in the Superdome.

Another first is observed tonight as the curtain rises on the 17th annual New Orleans Film Festival at Landmark Theatres' Canal Place Cinema and the Contemporary Arts Center.

The festival was on the verge of announcing its 2005 schedule when Katrina slammed into the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts on Aug. 29, 2005.

Michael Allday, president of the festival's board, said that the festival was canceled, but the competitive division's winning entries were set aside and saved for this year.

The festival's presence has been felt over the past year in a series of special screenings of films that did not otherwise receive theatrical engagements in New Orleans (such as "The Notorious Bettie Page" and Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble") and in a series of fund- raisers.

Even the American Film Institute lent a hand by scheduling a benefit screening of Julie Gustafson's "Desire," this year's New Orleans Film Festival award-winning documentary, and by donating film canisters autographed by celebrities attending AFI events. Some of the film canisters were expected to be offered during a silent auction at last night's benefit gala, Allday said.

"I was touched by the amount of good will this festival has engendered around the nation," Allday said.

In the midst of the chaos caused by Katrina, the festival also had to hire an executive director after former director Lindsay Ross moved to Portland, Ore.

Ali Duffy -- a Briton with production experience in New Zealand, Australia and the United States who has lived in New Orleans for the past six years -- took over the film festival job in September. She has been a board member for three years and has served as a jury captain for the festival's competitive division.

The festival got a big break when Cox Communications New Orleans and the Independent Film Channel signed a two-year agreement to be presenting partners -- the first time in festival history that the companies have committed to this level of support.

Cox and IFC helped spread word of the festival through the IFC Media Lab, which solicited the submission of short films in its "Save the Film Festival" campaign. Web surfers were invited to vote for their favorites, and the winning entries will be shown Saturday at 3 p.m. at the CAC as well as online and on Cox Communications New Orleans Local On Demand.

"We set out to save the film festival, and I feel now that we have been well and truly saved," Duffy said.

"There would have been a festival (even without the Cox/IFC support)," Allday said. "But we wouldn't have been able to do everything we're going to be able to do."

If the festival is to survive for the long term, he said, public awareness will have to be raised. "If you look back at our history, we've had some great films."

Among the biggest films to premiere locally at the festival is 1996's "Shine," which went on to receive seven Oscar nominations, winning for star Geoffrey Rush.

Duffy said she would like to see the festival take a more active role in nurturing the film industry in Louisiana.

"NOFF is a really important cultural institution for the city, much like the opera and ballet," Duffy said. "I really believe in the festival."

OP-EDS/EDITORIALS LTE: Hate for Louisiana Recovery Authority The Baton Rouge Advocate October 14, 2006

Are the media in Baton Rouge giving you any sense of how the people in the most- devastated areas feel about the Louisiana Recovery Authority? Hate is not too strong a word.

We hate the bureaucracy designed to siphon off money that people need to rebuild their lives.

We hate the unnecessary delays.

We hate Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s “covenant” that tells people in a free country where they have to live.

We hate elevation requirements enacted to make the Army Corps of Engineers’ job easier.

We hate the fact that this is ridiculously impractical even if they gave us the pittance they are offering for the work.

Where will we get the thousands of skilled workers to do this job? How long would someone have to wait?

We hate the fact that they know this, and still choose to place this burden on us.

The recovery authority’s Sean Reilly indicated that they would use the “money we control” to send a message that some areas should not be rebuilt.

We hate the fact that people who evacuated and now live and work out of state will still face financial ruin because we are worth less to Blanco since we won’t be around to vote for her.

We really do hate the LRA, and we’re trying not to hate the people who developed this plan. The whole tone of the plan is condescending.

This “covenant” business sounds like it was written by someone who lives in a restricted community.

The pain caused by government ineptness and corruption is second only to losing our loved ones.

It was actually LESS stressful to lose all our earthly possessions.

God help us, because the state of Louisiana sure isn’t.

Vicky Mocklin, librarian, St. Bernard resident now in Memphis

Editorial: Put Entergy ratepayers first New Orleans Times-Picayune October 14, 2006

The Louisiana Recovery Authority took the right step this week by recommending that Entergy New Orleans get all $200 million in federal grants that the state initially set aside to help utilities hit by last year's hurricanes.

The money will have the biggest impact if used to offset possible rate hikes in the city of New Orleans, where customers are facing an initial 25 percent rate increase with additional increases possible. By contrast, ratepayers of other state utilities with a larger customer base are likely to see much smaller rate increases. State legislators and officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who have to approve the LRA recommendation, must keep this in mind.

So should Entergy officials. The company's proposed set of rate increases would add $45 a month to the average residential bill and sharply increase commercial rates as well. Such a burden could choke the city's recovery. Entergy officials would not discuss their plans following the LRA vote, citing ongoing rate negotiations with the New Orleans City Council, which regulates the company.

But an LRA consultant said that if the entire $200 million grant is used to offset rate increases, as the LRA mandated, the 25 percent rate increase would drop to 9 percent, or about $16 per month to the average bill. Commercial energy rates also would need to rise less than the company's current plan.

City Council President Oliver Thomas said the council is now hoping for no increase or, at worst, a minimal increase. Entergy and the council need to work together toward that goal, or at least to postpone increases as long as possible. In the interim, more customers could return to the city, reducing the potential increase per ratepayer. Additional government funds or investment from Entergy's parent company could erase the need for a rate increase as well.

Entergy New Orleans owes Entergy Corp. for a $200 million line of credit the parent company extended after Hurricane Katrina. Protecting ratepayers should take precedence over repaying shareholders, though. For one thing, shareholders cannot argue financial hardship. Entergy Corp. netted $923 million in profits last year, and as of its latest quarterly report was on pace to surpass that amount this year. In August, Entergy Corp. announced that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer J. Wayne Leonard had received a $7.7 million stock-option bonus. Shareholders should appreciate that their long-term investment in Entergy New Orleans is better served by avoiding rate hikes that could further hurt local ratepayers and hamper the city's recovery.

In discussing the taxpayer aid to Entergy this week, LRA officials correctly warned that the money is not a long-term solution. Instead, it buys the company, ratepayers and government officials time to begin discussing a long-term plan, including a possible merger with the larger and more stable Entergy Louisiana. It's a conversation that needs to start soon.

Editorial: A fresh start New Orleans Times-Picayune October 16, 2006

The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority doesn't enjoy the greatest reputation. The quasi-state agency became known over the years for its astounding inefficiency. As NORA fiddled, thousands of blighted buildings it was charged with rescuing continued to rot. Just last week, a decaying 1850s Greek Revival townhouse in Treme that had been on NORA's radar for years was damaged beyond repair by fire. This could be a new day for the redevelopment authority, though. The Legislature changed the way the agency is organized and expanded its powers to allow it to handle hurricane-damaged property from the state's Road Home program. The agency's former director moved on to a new job in a different city. And last week, Mayor Ray Nagin appointed members to the expanded board that will govern the authority going forward. The new members are Tulane University President Scott Cowen, health care executive Mel Lagarde, lawyer Rob Couhig, former City Council member Jim Singleton and community activist Barbara Major. Herschel Abbott, the former president of BellSouth Louisiana who had been heading the company's Washington office, is expected to fill out the board. That is a group with impressive experience and credentials, and their willingness to serve on the board is promising. The importance of their mission cannot be overstated.

New Orleans has a rich supply of historic buildings, but thousands of them are at risk of demolition by neglect. That was true before Katrina struck and the city filled up with water. The problems with blight have been made exponentially worse by the storm. Some buildings that were already dilapidated are beyond rescue. But others could be renovated and added to the city's stock of usable housing, something that is urgently needed post- Katrina. The new NORA will be dealing with property across the city and of all ages and types. The health of neighborhoods -- and by extension the entire city -- will depend in part on how well the agency and the new board handle the houses and other buildings that come to them.

They must do so efficiently and responsibly. They also should keep in mind that New Orleans' architecture is a main reason that the city is such a magnet for visitors and residents alike. The old NORA didn't do a good job of protecting the city's architectural treasures or in protecting residents from the scourge of blight. The new NORA must do better.

Editorial: Dueling proposals on insurance relief The Baton Rouge Advocate October 15, 2006

Louisiana has gone for months without any clear plan for relieving residents of rising home insurance costs. Now, there are two major proposals for easing some of that sticker shock, and before it’s all over, there could be other ideas for easing pocketbook pain on the home insurance front.

We welcome suggestions from all corners on addressing the rising cost of home insurance prompted by claims from last year’s hurricanes. The best way to weigh those proposals is through a fair, reasonable public debate on available options. We hope that such a debate generates more light than heat, though the political tone of this issue so far does not promise the kind of rational discussion so desperately needed about this problem.

Homeowners have been hit on two fronts as they pay home insurance bills in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many insurance companies have substantially raised their home insurance premiums since the storms. On top of that, home insurance customers were obligated to pay a special assessment on their insurance bills to cover the losses of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

The quasi-public institution serves as an insurer of last resort for those who can’t obtain home insurance in the private market. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. borrowed nearly $1 billion to pay claims from last year’s storms, and by law, it’s allowed to assess all home insurance customers across the state to repay its debt.

There’s no quick fix for market conditions that have driven up the basic cost of home insurance premiums.

But state Treasurer John Kennedy and Gov. Kathleen Blanco are offering separate plans to relieve insurance customers of the special Citizens assessments on their home insurance bills, which ranged from 10 percent to 18.3 percent of premiums after the storms. Future assessments also are being considered, starting at a 3.6 percent surcharge in 2007 and increasing to 5 percent during the next 10 years.

Kennedy wants to use money from a projected state surplus, tap a hurricane relief fund and refinance part of the state’s tobacco settlement to handle Citizens’ debt, relieving insurance customers of that obligation.

After initially criticizing the scale of Kennedy’s proposal as premature given uncertainties about the exact size of the state’s budget surplus, the Blanco administration has done an about-face and answered Kennedy’s plan with a proposal of its own.

Blanco also favors using an anticipated budget surplus and money from a hurricane relief fund to handle Citizens’ debt.

As another source of funding, Blanco wants to sell an unsold portion of the state’s settlement against tobacco companies, which she estimates would net about $1 billion. Blanco’s plan would require a constitutional amendment.

Kennedy and Blanco are publicly debating the merits of their respective proposals. Some Republican state lawmakers have entered the fray, suggesting there are more financially prudent ways to fund a Citizens bailout than Blanco’s plan.

Blanco’s relationship with Kennedy has been cool at best, and her fractious relationship with Republican lawmakers promises to become more complicated as the governor faces a tough re-election battle next year.

However, we suspect that the average Louisiana homeowner is less interested in the politics of these Citizens proposals and more concerned with their practical implications.

It is necessary to consider just what kind of relief these proposals promise, and at what long-term cost to the state’s fiscal health. Those answers will become clearer if state leaders engage in substantive debate, not personal feuds.

It is also important to remember that whatever relief emerges for insurance customers facing Citizens assessments, the increasing cost of home insurance because of market forces will remain a problem.

We suspect that home insurance rates will remain high as long as Louisiana’s coast and its levees are compromised. Those are long-term challenges requiring close collaboration among the state’s leaders — something that isn’t greatly in evidence right now.

Editorial: Where's the health-care money? The Daily Advertiser October 13, 2006

In July, we expressed our appreciation to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt for his promise to provide Louisiana with federal resources to use in restructuring health care in the New Orleans area. Leavitt said he was willing to devote money and change federal rules to allow innovative health-care initiatives. What happened?

Leavitt now says no federal funds will be available, and Louisiana officials say he is not working with the state, but dictating to the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative – demanding a universal insurance plan that the state cannot afford and elimination of the present system that relies on charity hospitals.

The collaborative says it is having problems moving forward with the restructuring because Leavitt is sending mixed signals. The situation is extremely discouraging. As Gov. Kathleen Blanco says, perhaps Leavitt should submit his own restructuring plan and a vehicle for funding it.

Editorial: Insurance crisis has roots in past The Daily Advertiser October 16, 2006

Somehow, we need to get past Louisiana's past. It haunts the state in critical areas, particularly economic development. For instance, there was a time when a crudely lettered but totally accurate sign on the Louisiana side of the old Sabine River Bridge read "Leave Texas, enter taxes."

The nonprofit Tax Foundation now ranks 20 states as having tax structures that are less "business friendly" than ours, but while the sign at the Sabine is gone, the perception it portrayed remains.

One of the most critical areas in which the state's past is creating problems concerns the cost and availability of insurance. It is generally agreed that bringing more companies to the state would ease the problem, which has reached crisis proportions since last year's hurricanes.

According to the governor, insurance commissioner and 31 professional and business trade organizations that make up the Coalition to Insure Louisiana, companies are not eager to come because they recall what Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon terms "the bad old days." Those were the days when insurance industry regulators considered raking in a little personal profit part of the job.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco told the coalition at a recent meeting that Louisiana must end some of the myths "and make it a place where insurance companies want to do business and feel comfortable about doing so." Of course, the word "myths" doesn't seem entirely accurate when you consider that three insurance commissioners in a row were carted off to prison.

What is needed is not erasing myths but proving that Louisiana has changed. Doing away with the Louisiana Insurance Rating Commission may be necessary.

The commission is performing ethically now, but too many insurance companies remember a different kind of performance. As Blanco says, its reputation is keeping insurance companies out of Louisiana.

There are, of course, things that need to be done besides getting rid of ugly old memories. Robert Taylor, vice president of the Louisiana Bankers Association and chairman of the Coalition to Insure Louisiana, pointed to the need for informing insurance companies of steps the state is taking to mitigate future hurricane damage. Taylor raised the question that must be answered: "How can we make the state a safer place from the storms that we know are coming?"

One approach, which Blanco says will be considered in the next legislative session, is giving tax credits to those home and business owners who retrofit existing structures so they will be less at risk for severe damage from hurricanes.

As has been said by many involved in the effort to deal with the insurance crisis, a solution will not come quickly. When it does, it will have to be multi-faceted. A key facet must be convincing insurance companies that there is a new Louisiana, with political integrity and business-friendly policies.

Editorial: Where's the chemo for crime? New Orleans Times-Picayune October 15, 2006

Cancer cells multiply far more quickly than healthy cells, and the same is true for violence in post-Katrina New Orleans. The cancer of crime is spreading quickly, and our defense against it -- the criminal justice system -- isn't keeping pace. It was weak before the storm and is even weaker now.

The results are deadly, not only for those who fall victim to violence but for the entire community. Safety is a key factor for New Orleanians trying to decide whether to return or stay, and that means safety from crime as well as flooding. What will they make of last week's bloody toll: five dead and seven wounded by gunfire in a four-day period?

When armed robbers target people taking evening strolls in Faubourg Marigny and the French Quarter, it shatters people's sense of security. When a gunman shoots three victims -- two of them bystanders -- near a popular restaurant, as happened on Frenchmen Street Monday, people become frightened.

The outbreak of violence isn't an isolated blip. Despite the decline in population, the per capita murder rate is virtually the same as before the storm.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Warren Riley first described the triple- shooting outside the Praline Connection as criminals shooting criminals. But even if that had turned out to be the case, it wouldn't matter. When bad guys turn the city into their battlefield, innocent people are hurt, and the Frenchmen Street incident proves that point.

Business owners in Marigny, who have been complaining for months about an increase in street crime, are starting to arm themselves, and their frustration is understandable. They see firsthand the consequences of unchecked crime: customers are staying away because they're afraid.

A gun behind every counter isn't the cure for crime, though. In the long term, New Orleans needs to have better schools and a stronger economy: an environment that fosters hope and opportunity instead of nihilism. But the city also desperately needs a strong, healthy criminal justice system that can deal effectively with killers and criminals.

What we have now is a dysfunctional mess. Prosecutors complain about sloppy police reports and officers who don't show up in court. Police complain about judges who wrongly release suspects. District Attorney Eddie Jordan claims his office is a "shining example of success." But his office has been lethargic in prosecuting crime, accepting only a fraction of the cases presented, most of those small-time drug cases. Meanwhile, there's a huge backlog.

While the different parts of the system blame each other, criminals have learned that they have more to fear from each other than from the police and courts. Witnesses don't believe the system can protect them -- with some reason.

Grim as the diagnosis is, there are some positive signs. Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman is sending deputies to help police patrol Marigny and other hot spots in the city. He's using a $59,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, intended for proactive patrols in hurricane-damaged areas, to pay for the overtime costs. That's a smart use of resources, and it's also encouraging to see teamwork among law enforcement agencies.

The continued presence of National Guard troops and State Police is also helpful. The federal government has beefed up the number of prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office, increased the number of deputy marshals in the U.S. Marshals Service and added agents to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Law enforcement is only the first line of defense, of course. New Orleans needs its courts to work, too. That's why it's encouraging that Louisiana Supreme Court has suspended Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Charles Elloie. The court is investigating complaints about his practice of granting free or reduced bail bonds to suspects, even felons accused of violent crimes.

New Orleans needs every facet of its justice system to work. We can't tolerate judges who don't bother to learn the facts before letting suspects back onto the streets.

But the housecleaning shouldn't stop with Judge Elloie. The Police Department needs to make sure its officers don't consider an arrest the end of their task. Police who routinely fail to show up in court ought to be fired. Mr. Jordan needs to stop congratulating himself and start clearing his backlog and building cases against violent criminals.

The cancer is spreading; we need chemotherapy -- not excuses.