Source: Associated Press

The first archaeological dig at one of the nation's oldest cathedrals has turned up a mix of new finds in the heart of the French Quarter. Discoveries behind St. Louis Cathedral include a small silver crucifix from the 1770s or 1780s and traces of previously unknown buildings dating back to around the city's founding in 1718.

"This site is by far the richest and most interesting one I have worked on yet in New Orleans and the excellent preservation of the frontier phase of the city's founding makes it the `Jamestown' of the Lower Mississippi Valley," she wrote in her e-mail.

Source: National Public Radio

It's been nearly three years since Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters devastated parts of New Orleans.

The Guard will stay in the city at least until the end of the year following Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision to extend its tour of duty.

I'm not in New Orleans but I really have to wonder - is this still necessary?

I mean to "prevent looting"....really? Still?

Source: National Public Radio

"I've had people say to me: 'I always read mysteries before I got to a city because that's how I learn what's really going on there,' " says Smith. "I feel like that's my job, to tell what's really going on here. And until I figure out what's really going on here, I'm not sure how to write."

Smith says she's handling it, too. It took her a while, but she's writing again, and she hopes that someday she'll begin to understand her changed city enough to have Skip Langdon uncover more of its secrets.

Skip Langdon is one of my favorite characters in detective fiction - follow the link to NPR for an excerpt of Smith's short story contribution to New Orleans Noir, a recent collection she edited.

Source: Associated Press

I ran down the streets of Pamplona with my brother, bulls not far behind, more than 20 years ago, but this sounds scarier:

It's the running of the bulls, New Orleans style.Hundreds of men, women and children, most in white with red scarves around their waists and red bandannas around their necks, gathered outside a French Quarter bar Saturday morning to be chased down Bourbon Street by members of New Orleans' roller derby league.

A few minutes after the runners started, the skaters whacked their plastic bats on the street and took off. Behind them putted Elvis impersonators on motorized scooters.

Source: The Nation

Please read this entire article - it will blow your mind:

"Sir, that's a justification for saying something that was untrue," Rep. Welch said.

I really really wish there were actual criminal investigations in all this mess. It's fine and good to say "FEMA sucks!" over and over but really - someone needs to stand trial.

Source: Best Friends

Cathy [Scott], a veteran journalist who covered the rescue for Best Friends’ magazine and website, was much more than just a casual observer with a notepad. She worked right alongside other Best Friends staffers and volunteers rescuing the pets left behind by Hurricane Katrina. It became the largest animal rescue effort in U.S. history, with approximately 15,000 animals saved. Best Friends played a major role in that effort, rescuing and helping place roughly 7,000 animals.

The book features more than 70 heart-touching photographs taken by Best Friends photographer Clay Myers. Like Cathy, Clay also played an active part in the rescue.

You can order Pawprints of Katrina at Powells Books.

Source: Associated Press

I don't think it's fatigue that prevents a memorial, I think the city just isn't ready:

New Orleans has seen an estimated 67 percent of its population return since the 2005 disaster that submerged 80 percent of town. But government statistics indicate many are not original inhabitants, with up to 200,000 pre-Katrina residents forwarding U.S. Mail to other parts of the country a year after the storm.

With the dislocation, there is no organized group of surviving family members to push for a memorial, as was seen after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Residents and activists have focused on the challenges of the living.

Source: MSNBC

My daddy thought — no, he expected — that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He was correct in his belief because he had lived in an America of continual social progress depression followed by prosperity, segregation by integration, and so on. And though I haven't quite pinpointed it, somewhere between my daddy's youth and mine, generational aspirations for a richer democracy changed to aspirations for a richer me — more wealth and more leisure time for a lower quality of work. And our political process? We didn't keep an eye on how our tax dollars were being squandered or how our interests were being poorly served by our elected officials.

My message to young people is this, that what happened in New Orleans, what is happening around the world, is a signal opportunity to actually start to participate. Throughout the history of America, young people have been a part of change. Its time to seize the day.

This is a great interview - don't miss it.

Source: A Year At The Wheel

A couple of filmmakers who have decided to tour the country and visit the "wrong zip codes," as they put it, have put up a series of short films on New Orleans that seem well worth watching. I'd write more but am packing my bags for a trip to Japan tomorrow. More in a week or so from me.

Source: CNN

First there are the fine folks at FEMA who need to explain a few things:

A Democratic congressman from Mississippi plans to hold a hearing into how millions of dollars worth of supplies meant for Gulf Coast hurricane survivors ended up being given away as surplus property.
People check out the second story of a home sitting on the ground in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Katrina in 2005.

"We just think that FEMA needs to come and tell the committee how such a debacle could occur, and in the process, what are they going to do to assure Congress and the taxpaying public that it will never happen again," Thompson said.

Then there are the fine folks at the State of Mississippi:

Thompson said he was stunned at how Mississippi officials made "a mockery of the whole process."

"Any time items intended for victims of Katrina end up in the hands of the Department of Corrections or state employees, then clearly, Mississippi dropped the ball."

The response? "We just didn't know....":

Jim Marler, director of Mississippi's surplus agency, failed to return repeated phone calls over several months to explain what happened there. But spokeswoman Kym Wiggins said the agency was not told the items were still needed -- a statement that didn't sit well with groups working to rebuild the stricken coast.
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"When I hear people stand up and just beat their chest and say we've got everything under control, that's when I just want to slap them upside the head and say, 'Get a grip, get a life,' " said Stallworth, also a Biloxi City Councilman.

I do hope many many people lose their jobs over this one.

Source: USA Today

This all gives slime a new definition:

Gulf Stream, the main supplier of travel trailers for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, knew of high levels of formaldehyde in some of the trailers, but did not tell anyone because it regarded the situation as a public relations and legal matter, not a public health issue, the Democratic chairman of a House oversight committee said Wednesday.

Gulf Stream received over $500 million from FEMA for 50,000 trailers for Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

They tested the trailers - but those weren't "official tests" (that's their defense, really):

Jim Shea, chairman of Gulf Stream, said there was no actual "testing" of trailers. Instead, there was informal screening with a Formaldemeter, which is not a scientific test. However, Shea said his company in 2006 asked FEMA if it should test the trailers. But FEMA said no, he said.

Republicans on the committee blamed federal government for not having standards for safe levels of formaldehyde in trailers and said the hearing was too narrowly focused on manufacturers.

The bottom line:

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said that the country "failed" Gulf Coast hurricane victims in the initial response to the disaster and in putting them in unsafe trailers.

Tony Buzbee, a lawyer representing hundreds of current and former trailer occupants who are suing dozens of trailer manufacturers, said before the hearings that it is laughable to assert that the manufacturers bear no responsibility for the levels of formaldehyde in the trailers they made.

I hope someday the fine folks at Gulf Stream get to spend some quality time in one of their trailers; it might help change their perspective some.

Source: New York Times

The NYT Board weighs in on the whole Mississippi wants to use Katrina aid for a new port story:

Some members of Congress are rightly agitated about Mississippi’s shameful attempt to hijack Hurricane Katrina aid — which should have been spent on affordable housing for the poor — for a $600 million expansion of the Port at Gulfport. The Port expansion short changes the neediest Mississippians and has nothing to do with storm damage. It’s actually a pet development project, conceived well before the storm, that should have been paid for through bonds and other means.

The letter portrays Mississippi’s post-hurricane recovery plan as a blatant attempt to short change the low-income families who were supposed to be a main focus of the aid effort. “The State explicitly excluded wind damage from its homeowner assistance program, effectively closing the door for much needed recovery funds on hundreds of thousands of low income households. Fourth, the state has focused almost exclusively on owner-occupied housing, only dedicating 33 percent of funds to rental housing programs.’’

So here's a question - just where the hell are you supposed to live in the country if you don't have a lot of money?

Source: CNN

As I reported last month, CNN uncovered that a whole bunch of FEMA supplies that were earmarked for Katrina victims were being given away because the state of Louisiana never asked for them - and apparently forgot that there might still be some folks who needed them. As it turns out, Mississippi also thought everyone was alright:

Prisons in Mississippi got coffee makers, pillowcases and dinnerware -- all intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

That doesn't sit well with most aid groups in Mississippi. "You would have to be living under a rock not to know there is still a need," said Cass Woods, the project coordinator of Coastal Women for Change.

Living under a rock - sounds about right for pretty much every local, state and federal official who has been involved in the mess from the beginning.

Source: Editor & Publisher

The Times-Picayune has decided it's not worth the trouble to deliver about 3,000 copies of the daily paper to neighboring Mississippi.

"The storm took a lot of the Mississippi distribution away," (Circulation Director Phil Ehrhardt) added, saying rising gas prices were not the chief culprit. "It did not come back on the Gulf Coast and it has been [nearly] three years."

Another sad sign of how the whole Gulf Coast region is suffering.

Source: United Press International

One more barrier for the poor to deal with when returning to New Orleans:

Some poor people evacuated from New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 say they are having trouble returning because they cannot get rental assistance.

Although federal Section 8 vouchers are transferable to anywhere in the United States, many evacuees have had transfers denied or delayed because of a loophole in federal law allowing local agencies to reject moves to "higher-rent" areas such as New Orleans, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Sunday.

Oh, this is rich! The reason there are higher rents is, of course, the lack of housing, which has been compounded by the razing of undamaged public housing. Does conspiracy have to nip us in the nose before we see it?

Source: Chin Music Press

Toni McGee Causey has posted her essay, "Where Grace Lives," included in our 2006 anthology Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, on Murderati, inspiring a slew of comments on disaster preparedness and those ugly days right after the levees broke. This post seems particularly timely considering how many communities across the country are dealing with devastating floods and fires this summer.

Source: New York Times

Now here's a CD I did not expect to hear about:

“Two Men With the Blues”
(Blue Note)

Armstrong remains the model of phrasing and narrative in Mr. Marsalis’s boldest playing here. And he was precisely the kind of performer for whom Willie Nelson is a living analogue: a troubadour with wicked, transformative rhythmic and melodic powers, an improviser comfortable with a sturdy song regardless of style. Armstrong’s example created the conditions for this to happen, and the record is an almost classical example of his old game: eluding American stereotypes of country, city, blues, jazz, race, class, humor and sadness.

Source: Washington Post

This is enough to bring anyone religion:

It is not the fact that Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church sits in the middle of a Midwestern cornfield that makes it notable. Nor even that its pastor preaches in jeans and sandals to a working-class congregation sipping coffee in shorts and T-shirts.

The Ohio volunteers come out of a faith community so ferociously committed to aiding the poor, whether in Dayton or Darfur, that its pastor, the Rev. Mike Slaughter, 56, regularly admonishes his congregation, "You get no points for coming to church on Sunday."