NewsTrust - Hurricane Katrina - Most Recent Stories

Can Star Power Make New Orleans' Food Deserts Bloom?

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - May. 16 (Special Report) - Actor Wendell Pierce, who stars in David Simon's Treme, is trying to combat New Orleans' food deserts by building convenience and grocery stores in the city's neediest areas. But a host of bureaucratic stumbling blocks still make it hard to get fresh, healthful foods to people living in these areas.

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While West, Texas, Burned, Its Famous Czech Bakery Kept the Kolaches Coming

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Dana Liebelson, Jaeah Lee, Tasneem Raja - Apr. 19 (News Report) - There's a Czech bakery, deli, and gas station combo in tiny West, Texas that's world-famous for serving up fruit kolaches and hot chubbies to locals and tourists driving on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the last 29 years. Last night was no exception. In the wake of the massive explosion and fire that rocked a fertilizer plant just three miles down the road, Czech Stop kept its doors open—and the kolaches coming—almost without interruption. "I rushed up there after it happened because one of my employees said the ceiling was falling in," says Barbara Schissler, president of the Czech Stop empire, who"s worked there since it opened in 1983. "One of our freelance carpenters recommended that we close the doors, but when I showed up, I saw only the ceiling tiles were buckling, so I reopened.

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The Axis of Ennui

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By DAVID BROOKS - Mar. 12 (Opinion) - Effective energy innovation is not happening where you think it is, Dear Reader.

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MAP: Which Pols Voted to Help Victims of Katrina, but Not Sandy?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Dana Liebelson - Jan. 22 (Investigative Report) - On Tuesday, the Senate is expected to finally approve a Sandy aid package worth about $50 billion, three months after the hurricane devastated major metropolitan regions on the East Coast. Many GOP representatives bitterly oppose this bill and an immediate relief package failed to pass the GOP-controlled House in 2012. But when it comes to hurricane relief, the GOP isn't exactly consistent: In 2005, 58 House Republicans who voted no on the Sandy aid bill approved a disaster relief package for Katrina victims worth $51.8 billion —less than two weeks after the storm hit.

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Former Mayor of New Orleans Is Charged in Sweeping Corruption Case

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Campbell Robertson - Jan. 19 (News Report) - C. Ray Nagin was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on 21 counts including conspiracy, bribery and money laundering.

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Why 58 Representatives Who Voted for Hurricane Katrina Aid Voted Against Aid for Sandy

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Theodoric Meyer - Jan. 18 (News Analysis) - When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Congress passed two relief bills almost unanimously. But when it comes to Hurricane Sandy, some in Congress seem to have had a change of heart.

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Obama takes swipe at Bush during Gulf trip

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Amie Parnes - Sep. 04 (News) - Obama comforted Isaac victims in Louisiana and noted in times of trouble "nobody's a Democrat or a Republican."

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Fact check: How Tropical Storm Isaac is unlike Hurricane Katrina

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Poynter Institute - Aug. 27 (Fact Check) - But these are very different storms. Katrina was so big, hurricane force winds extended 75 miles east of the center. The Weather Channel recounts, “Katrina first hit Florida August 25 as a Category 1 storm, strengthened to a Category 5 from a Category 3

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Stricter Regulation of Formaldehyde Remains Uncertain Despite Carcinogen Ruling

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By by Joaquin Sapien - Jun. 14 (Investigative Report) - by Joaquin Sapien Late last week, the Department of Health and Human Services classified formaldehyde as "a known carcinogen," adding its verdict to two similar reports released by key agencies since 2009. But despite the growing scientific consensus about how formaldehyde can affect human health, it remains to be seen if the studies will lead to tighter U.S. formaldehyde regulations. As we've previously reported, the Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to update its chemical risk assessment for formaldehyde since 1998, but has been stalled repeatedly by the chemical manufacturing industry. EPA assessments are the country's gold standard for how dangerous a chemical is. The formaldehyde assessment would undoubtedly influence the stringency of a rule the EPA is developing on how much of the chemical can safely be released from construction materials that contain it In 2009, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., maneuvered successfully to delay the assessment by putting a hold on the nomination of a key EPA appointee and forcing the agency to send its draft to the National Academy of Sciences for review. Vitter has received substantial campaign contributions from the nation's largest formaldehyde manufacturers and users. After the EPA agreed to send its assessment to the NAS, a top industry lobbyist, Charles Grizzle, threw Vitter a fundraising party, requesting donations of $1,000 a plate. The NAS finished reviewing the EPA assessment in April, sending back a long list of questions and advising the EPA not to finalize the document until it could show exactly how formaldehyde causes cancer, a biological mechanism known as the "mode of action." Dr. Peter Infante, a former director of the Office of Carcinogen Identification and Classification at the Occupational Trailers supplied by FEMA to Katrina survivors were found to have harmful levels of formaldehyde in them. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services classified the chemical as 'a known carcinogen

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Rx for Catastrophe

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:55:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Melinda Burns - Jan. 23 (Review) - A book on disaster law and policy urges stronger federal intervention to shore up natural barriers and protect the most vulnerable members of the community. A photograph of a bayou in Louisiana. One law professor looks at disaster law and policy in the

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Catastrophe on camera: Why media coverage of natural disasters is flawed

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Patrick Cockburn - Jan. 20 (Comment) - The media generally assume that news of war, crime and natural disasters will always win an audience. "If it bleeds, it leads," is a well-tried adage of American journalism. Of the three categories, coverage of war has attracted criticism for its lies,

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New Orleans getting rid of last FEMA trailers

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Cain Burdeau - Dec. 31 (News) - The era of the FEMA trailer — a symbol of the prolonged rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina — might be drawing to a close in New Orleans.

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Viewpoints: Dispelling myths about Katrina helps us learn from mistakes - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Sacramento Bee - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - Read Sacramento opinion, letters and editorials at The Sacramento Bee

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How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House?

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Matthew Norman - Nov. 10 (Review) - May the Lord the former president so ostentatiously worships have mercy on my soul, and those in Iraq without water, electricity and medicine forgive me, but I just cannot suppress a twinge of sympathy for George W Bush.

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On Gulf Coast, a ceramics museum that's unafraid of hurricanes

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Richard Fausset - Nov. 07 (News Report) - On Saturday afternoon, architect Frank Gehry's latest creation — a characteristically lyrical cluster of crimped and undulating buildings — opened to the public here as the new home of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art. Like nearly every recent Gehry project, it is likely to become an instant landmark. The question is whether it will be an enduring one. The buildings front a stretch of Gulf of Mexico coastline that is a notorious bull's-eye for hurricanes.

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"Sacrificial Steel": Is the Corps Dooming Eastern New Orleans Again?

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Harry Shearer - Sep. 20 (News) - Corps higher-ups have authorized the refusal to rust-coat the steel "sheet piling" being driven to anchor floodwalls in the eastern half of the city. This is where your $14 billion is going, America. Into "sacrificial steel."

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First, Bash the Teachers

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Sep. 10 - by Peter HartWriting on the Wall Street Journal editorial page (10/1/09) under the headline “How Teachers Unions Lost the Media,” two education writers praised the press for turning on teachers, showing a “new attitude” that is in sync with today’s politics: read more

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Health Law Myths: Outside The Realm Of Reality

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Julie Rovner - Sep. 03 (News Analysis) - Are you really going to have to have a computer chip implanted in your head as part of the new health law? Will the law allow President Obama to create his own private army? While there are outrageous rumors circulating about the health law, some claims are grounded in truth.

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No Port After the Storm

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Zoe Sullivan - Aug. 31 (Special Report) - Road Home was supposed to get people back into the homes they owned after the storm. According to ICF International, the firm that initially ran it, Road Home was the largest disaster recovery program of its kind in U.S. history. In spite of the program’s $9.4 billion price tag, however, its impact has been uneven and discriminatory. As the Gulf region reels again from the U.S.’s largest environmental disaster in its history, the Road Home debacle provides important lessons about managing recovery strategies.

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Who Gets to Rebuild New Orleans?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - Aug. 31 () - “We’re dealing with local contractors on a daily basis and they’re not getting the work,” says Barry Kaufman of the Construction and General Laborers Union Local 689. “There are more out-of-state contractors in here than holes in cheese."

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Living in New Orleans After Katrina

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Jordan Flaherty, Zeph Fish - Aug. 28 (Cartoon) - For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed and incredible, glorious, vital city. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy supported a unique culture of vivid beauty.

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Katrina anniversary: How well has recovery money been spent?

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Bill Sasser - Aug. 28 (News Report) - Money from charitable foundations and $142 billion in federal funds have produced a substantial recovery in metro New Orleans, says a report released ahead of hurricane Katrina anniversary. The people of New Orleans may disapprove of the way President Obama has handled the Gulf oil spill, but when he arrives this weekend to mark the fifth anniversary of hurricane Katrina, he is likely to encounter mainly welcoming audiences. It's not just a matter of Southern hospitality: Residents here know their city's future is still bonded to billions of dollars in federal disaster recovery funding.

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Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CBS News - Aug. 28 (News) - Photographer Mario Tama forged a special bond with the people of New Orleans while covering the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. "As a photojournalist I've been through a lot of dire circumstances in a lot of countries," Tama said on CBS' "The Early Show."

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In the thick of Katrina

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By David Meeks - Aug. 28 (Special Report) - The water lapping at our front steps seemed to stretch forever: waist-deep and rising. The Times-Picayune newspaper offices, where we rode out hurricanes so we could hit the streets to report, was about to become an island prison. All night after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Lake Pontchartrain had spilled relentlessly into living rooms across New Orleans. More than 1,000 people were already dead. But we didn't know that yet. The newspaper's delivery trucks were our only way out, and perhaps not for much longer.

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Uneven Katrina recovery efforts often offered the most help to the most affluent

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Michael A. Fletcher - Aug. 27 (News Report) - Advocates say result of government's effort has been an uneven recovery, with whites and middle-class people more likely than blacks and low-income people to have rebuilt their lives.

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