S. Louisiana

Road trip: Des Alemandes, Raceland, Houma, Boutte, Destrahan, St. Rose, Kenner

True Conspiracy Stories

News Extra: CIA authorized assassinations; witnesses die under mysterious circumstances; authorities question former Marine.



Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Blackwater's Unwritten Death Contract

CIA's Ties with Blackwater Run Deep

NYT: Blackwater Worldwide

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

Washington Post article

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Local update, Katrina + 4 years

Coming up to the 4th anniversary of the worst disaster to hit a U.S. city in 99 years. New Orleans population has rebounded to some 3/4 of its pre-K level, and local culture is in a number of ways thriving, it seems to me in no small part in an act of deliberate defiance. In governmental response, however, "Heck of a Job" remains the unfortunate rule. Various details:

"Katrina Cottages": some finally under construction in Louisiana; none yet occupied by anyone who lost their home.

Delgado College lost its library in the Katrina levee failure flooding. FEMA promised funds to restore the building and restock with books. The library building is still empty.

Times-Picayune today: FEMA & Coast Guard to get to work clearing up some 6,000 Katrina sunk boats and other objects clogging waterways in S. Louisiana

Levees.org: Saying Katrina destroyed New Orleans is like saying traffic destroyed the Minneapolis bridge

Guardian: Four years on, Katrina remains cursed by rumour, cliche, lies and racism. Ordinary people mostly behaved well. Those in power panicked, spread fear and fiction, and showed eagerness to kill