Levees Not War

News Archive

17th St. Canal Floodwall Builders Can’t Be Sued for Katrina Failure

The New Orleans Project

Senator Mary Landrieu Points U.S. to Dutch-Style Flood Protection
After 4-day Netherlands tour, Louisiana senator recommends re-thinking water projects, agencies

Gulf Coast Civic Works Act Attracts Unlikely Allies
Reps. Cao, Melancon on board; seeking support from Landrieu, other senators

Senate Confirms Craig Fugate as FEMA Chief
After Louisiana Senator David Vitter stops stalling

Obama Selects Fugate as FEMA Director
Florida’s prized disaster chief brings experience to big job | Will FEMA be restored to cabinet level?

Obama’s Plan to Restore New Orleans
“Let New Orleans become the example of what America can do when we come together”

Groundbreaking MR-GO Civil Lawsuit Over Katrina Begins
Property owners vs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

LSU Ousts Most Honest Appraiser of City’s Levee Failures
Times-Picayune’s Bob Marshall says Ivor van Heerden deserves state’s gratitude, not firing

Coastal Specialist Len Bahr’s View of van Heerden Firing
Ivor is “high on list” of post-Katrina heroes

Ivor van Heerden’s “The Storm” Draws Fire at LSU
By John Schwartz, New York Times, May 30, 2006

Not by Accident: Building a Sustainable New Orleans
By Mark Davis of Tulane Law; former director of Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana

After Katrina: Redemption and Rebuilding
Special report in March 2009 American Prospect

At Last, Corps Releases Cat 5 Hurricane Protection Study
1 year late, $23m spent: 4,000 pages of options, but no action plan

Katrina’s Hidden Race War
Algiers Point Vigilantes Shot Black Flood Victims | By A. C. Thompson in The Nation

Plan for N.O. Hospitals Draws Outcry
VA/LSU plan would raze Charity, 200+ buildings & homes in historic preservation district

Outcry Grows Over Public Housing Demolitions in New Orleans
At City Council meeting, civil rights attorney Bill Quigley shoved up against wall, arrested

Bill Quigley: Half of New Orleans’s Poor Permanently Displaced: Failure or Success?
If the test of a society’s civility is how it treats its most vulnerable . . .

75 Years Later, Nation Hopes for Another F.D.R.
NYT Business: U.S. looks to Obama for “action, and action now”

Barack Obama for President
NYT’s eloquent case for “the right choice”

Robert Kuttner: Learning from 1929
There’s still time, but not much, to prevent crash from turning into full-blown depression

“Most Serious Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression”
Economists Robert Kuttner and Robert Weissman on Democracy Now!

Three Years after Katrina (NYT editorial)
Next president and Congress must act to prevent hopelessness, exodus

From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Not Accomplished
It’s as true now as it was last year | Amy Goodman on 2nd anniv. of Katrina

Critics Cite Red Tape in Rebuilding of Louisiana
FEMA seems to value “perfect paperwork” over speed or practical solutions

How Karl Rove Played Politics While New Orleans Drowned
Excerpt from Paul Alexander’s book “Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove”

Chris Hedges: The Corporate State and the Subversion of Democracy
Must Read | An illuminating overview, a warning, a call to action

Bill Clinton Calls for Katrina Recovery Leader in White House
At Tulane, addresses gathering of 700 int’l student activists organized by Clinton Global Initiative

City of New Orleans Hires Firm to Oversee Recovery Projects
$6 million to coordinate engineers, architects, building contractors

New Orleans’s Refusal to Vanish
A review of Ned Sublette’s “The World That Made New Orleans”

A City Worth Saving
John M. Barry and Newt Gingrich in USA Today

Don’t Mourn, Link
The Internet, “like a telephone tree,” is a tool for rebuilding | Michael Tisserand in The Nation

Louisianians Cash In on Gas Rush
Haynesville Shale in NE La. could be largest natural gas deposit in continental U.S.

Government Cannot Halt Oil Incentives, Louisiana Judge Rules
Victory for Oil Industry | Uncollected taxes over 20 years could reach $60 billion | Lawmakers say incentive wasn’t meant for $100/barrel prices

“Progressives, To Arms!”
Forget the middle ground | Paul Krugman in Slate

What Didn’t Go Right?
Bush’s absurd question shows the arrogance of an administration whose “limited government” agenda is responsible for the disastrous federal response to Katrina | by Sidney Blumenthal in Salon

Katrina Marked Turning Point for Times-Picayune
NPR features Pulitzer winner Mark Schleifstein and other feature writers