USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Hurricane Katrina drained the New Orleans metropolitan area of almost 40% of its residents and left the region with a whiter, ...
Does this mean good Christian Bigots will be thanking God in their prayers tonight? Only if the exiles didn't move to their neck of the woods, right? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
Reuters: Top News: "NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Angry New Orleans public-housing residents on Saturday took charge of the recovery and cleanup of homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina and vandals, blaming the government for failing to act.
Reuters: Top News: "NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - An incomplete system of defenses built in pieces over 40 years was responsible for the flooding that devastated New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Thursday.
No, no, no. Let's get this wording right. The Army Corps of Engineers, our government charged with the responsibility for the overall plan, design, and maintenance of the La. levees was responsible. Our government was responsible. Our politicians, the Presidents, the Congress, and the leadership in the Army Corps of Engineers are responsible for their failure. They knew the risks, they had the reports, and they took the Ford Pinto approach: What's a few hundred lives when we can save 10's of millions over the decades before the big one hits. Yep, that's our government. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CBS News: "On the first day of hurricane season, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a report concluding that the pre-Katrina system of protections in place "was a system in name only." The poor performance of the levees was labeled "a catastrophic failure.""
The Army Corps of Engineers used to have a top notch reputation when they did the work. But since Reagan, they contract out to the private sector and quality control through holding the Corps responsible has been largely lost along with the Corp's reputation. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CBS News: CBS Evening News: "The tentacles of the Katrina disaster have reached a new target, as insurance companies spooked by last year's storms inform tens of thousands of residents of coastal areas that their homeowner's policies will not be renewed."
This is the fatal flaw of insurance. They don't want to insure you against adversity. They want to insure only those who are unlikely to experience it. Paying claims hurts their bottom line. Collecting premiums from those unlikely to ever file them, is where all insurance companies want to go. Something for nothing. Who can blame them? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
ABC News: Politics: "Katrina Report Rips Bush Administration Anew; Senators Say Changes Unlikely Before Storm Season"
Now we know why the Pres. was taking his photo ops today in New Orleans helping nail some nails and hold lumber in place. Nice PR Mr. President, but, it doesn't change your history of incompetence in your job. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
ABC News: Politics: "Bush Makes 11th Visit to Hurricane-Ravaged Gulf Coast, Helps Volunteers in Cleanup Efforts"
And we pay this president how much for these 11 trips to try to make amends for his own incompetence? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CNN: Politics: ""All of us in positions of responsibility appreciate those who are helping us to understand how to do our jobs better," said Bush, whose administration has been faulted for its flawed response after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last August."
So, when you voted for Bush, did you think it was going to be necessary to teach Bush how to do his job and keep teaching him 3, 4, and 5 years into the job? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Corps officials are confident that by June, they will repair the breaches and other damage incurred along almost half the levee ...
So why are taxpayers footing the bill to rebuild homes and businesses there today? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CNN: Politics: "After being roundly criticized in a slew of media, congressional and government reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's internal watchdog Friday returned its own verdict on the handling of Hurricane Katrina: The criticism against FEMA is largely deserved."
BBC: World: "The US government issues long-awaited guidelines on rebuilding hurricane-devastated New Orleans."
But in light of melting ice caps, 3 feet only buys a few decades. Rebuilding the low areas of New Orleans is pure folly, and we will pay for another Katrina in my daughter's lifetime. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Many city properties that flooded severely in Hurricane Katrina will have to be raised at least 3 feet to be eligible for flood ..."
CBS News: "The wrath of hurricane Katrina introduced a world of loss and poverty unto those who had not previously known it. Those who didn't experience it first-hand saw every graphic detail. Promised talks about poverty have yet to materialize, though."
Like the fiscal responsibility that wasn't, the border security that wasn't, the No Child Left Behind that left millions behind, victory in Iraq that wasn't, etc. etc. etc. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CNN: Politics: "Hundreds of protesters led by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton rallied Saturday, demanding the right of all displaced New Orleans residents to vote after Hurricane Katrina."
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "Bush administration says bringing the levees up to federal standards will cost $10 billion. Insufficient funds may leave some areas unprotected."
This sounds about right. The President's Medicare Rx drug plan went from under $400 billion on passage to 1.2 Trillion after passage. Padding the taxpayer bill for lucrative contracts between big business and the Bush White House has been a hallmark of this administration. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CBS News: CBS Evening News: "As the Red Cross forwarded to the FBI allegations of misconduct to be investigated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, CBS" Sharyl Attkisson sat down for an exclusive interview with one of the workers caught up in the probe."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "A full recovery in New Orleans could take 25 years as homeowners, businesses and tourists are coaxed back to the city devastated ..."
Can't our President sight see the Mayan ruins on his own time, say, one of his many vacations. Our nation has problems and some of them come from Mexico. Then again, its very likely that the more he sight sees, the safer the rest of us are! Kinda like Reagan and his naps in the Oval Office. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
BBC: World: "The last child to be reunited with her family after the hurricane has gone back to her mother, officials announce."
Amen. This is immensely positive news coming from the horrible Katrina story. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CNN Money: Economy: "In the latest prediction for a worse hurricane season, Risk Management Solutions is saying insured property losses in Florida and the Gulf Coast are likely to be 40 percent higher for the next five years."
AP Politics: "LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Saturday he was "ashamed for our country" after visiting the thousands of FEMA-owned mobile homes lined up at Hope Airport that have yet to be used as shelters for hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast."
CBS News: "A new video from the day Hurricane Katrina struck shows Louisiana's governor assuring federal officials that New Orleans' levees were holding " hours after a levee breach had been reported."
CBS News: "Former FEMA head Michael Brown told CBS affiliate WUSA-TV that newly released tapes confirm that he warned President Bush and top White House officials about the danger Hurricane Katrina posed to the Gulf Coast before the storm hit."
CBS News: CBS Evening News: "Some of the areas battered by Hurricane Katrina are still in ruins nearly six months after the storm. Byron Pitts reports on one town in Mississsippi where the locals have all but given up on federal help."
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "A new White House report points to lack of leadership as one reason for the hurricane Katrina fiasco."
This report has one primary purpose, to deflect criticism and the spotlight from the President. Nice to have scapegoats below you in the ranks, isn't it, Mr. President? And you wonder why the GOP is leaving your side in droves? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Chertoff told senators he accepts responsibility for "many lapses" during the catastrophe that left 1,300 dead and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. He said he was surprised to see that federal relief agencies under his command were unable to keep up with deliveries of water, ice and food after the storm."
In the real world, people get fired for this kind of colossal failure to respond and do their job. Of course, we all know, Wa. D.C. is not part of the real world the rest of us live in. Actions such as these are endearing calling forth the circling of wagons to defend such ineptitude and incompetence. A few are even promoted - all the way to President. American politics is a very odd animal. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "About 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes were scheduled to be forced out of their federally-funded hotel ..."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognizing the scope of Hurricane Katrina's destruction led to the slow emergency response...
Blame is one thing, and easy enough. Holding responsible parties accountable simply no longer happens in our government. And why should they, voters certainly don't hold them accountable, so why should officials hold themselves accountable? -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org. /a>
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "Every level of the U.S. government failed to learn the lessons of Sept. 11 in its hurricane response efforts, according to a blistering House report."
It is time to throw these corrupt self-serving politicians out on there ear. Voters must demand better at the polls in November. If voters don't bring in freshman to replace these corrupt incumbents who put the business of raising campaign money ahead of the pressing needs of the nation, like security and safety for the people, this dereliction of duty will continue to occur again and again in a host of other crisis issues to come. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
Reuters: Top News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown told a Senate panel on Friday he had warned President George W. Bush that New Orleans was facing catastrophe the day before Hurricane Katrina struck.
CNN: Politics: "Senate Democrats say they have documented nearly 30 instances in which federal and local government officials reported on the day of Hurricane Katrina's landfall that levees had broken and that New Orleans was flooding. The Democrats released the documents Thursday in advance of a Senate hearing today featuring former FEMA Director Mike Brown."
CBS News: "Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide Louis "Scooter" Libby has already been indicted in the CIA leak investigation. Now, in newly filed court papers, Libby says his "superiors" authorized him to release classified information to journalists."
CBS News: "More than 4,500 evacuees are expected to check out of their government-paid hotel rooms as the Federal Emergency Management Agency began cutting off money to pay for their stays. More than 20,000 others were given extensions."
ABC News: Politics: "Document Show That Louisiana Health Officials Turned Down Federal Help Before Katrina Struck"
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Hundreds of available trucks, boats, planes and federal officers were unused in search and rescue efforts immediately after Hurricane ..."
ABC News: Politics: "Texas Now Among States Complaining White House Aid for Storm Recovery in Gulf Coast Falls Short"
And Texas used to be so proud of the ex-governor. Now, growing numbers of Texans can't wait for Bush to become an ex-President. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
ABC News: Politics: "Democrats Say Refusal Slows Investigation Into Disaster Response"
ABC News: Politics: "Sen. Landrieu, Other Lawmakers Say Tens of Billions in Federal Aid Not Enough for Gulf Coast Recovery"
ABC News: Politics: "New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Says God Mad at America, but Also at Blacks"
Ray Nagin has become mentally unstable, his rational thinking and judgement twisted by guilt, remorse, and an ego that cannot possibly be sated by the slow, tough work ahead. -- David R. Remer, PoliWatch.Org.
CBS News: "President Bush is likely to get an earful when he makes his first visit to the Gulf Coast in three months. New Orleans residents aren't happy with federal aid or their mayor's plan to rebuild some neighborhoods and demolish others."
Reuters: Top News: "HOUSTON (Reuters) - Police in Houston reported a 23 percent jump in murders over the last year as the fourth largest U.S. city grappled with 150,000 evacuees from New Orleans and no extra money to cope with the influx."
CNN: Politics: "More than three months after thousands of people lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina, local and federal officials are trading blame over the slow delivery of trailer housing."
CBS News: "A government program that put Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels while they sought other housing must be extended a month beyond the deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a federal judge ruled."
ABC News: Politics: "La. Gov. Blanco's Staff Concerned About Appearing in Control After Katrina, Documents Show"
CBS News: "From unexplained gunshot wounds to stabbings and fatal blows to the head, unidentified victims in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are now the main characters in a real-life version of "CSI.""
Reuters: Top News: "NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - With jazz music, prayer and offerings to the gods, hundreds of Hurricane Katrina survivors on Saturday demanded the government move faster to rebuild the city and provide evacuees with more disaster assistance."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
AP Politics: "WASHINGTON - House members criticized the administration's handling of temporary housing assistance for Gulf Coast hurricane victims Thursday, complaining that one agency's policies were too rigid and another agency didn't show up for a hearing."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Former Presidents Bush and Clinton announced $90 million worth of grants Wednesday from the money they've raised to benefit victims ..."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "As Hurricane Katrina roared ashore and began its assault on homes and lives across Louisiana, a political storm was brewing in ..."
The floodwall on the 17th Street Canal levee was destined to fail long before it reached its maximum design load of 14 feet of water because the Army Corps of Engineers underestimated the weak soil layers 10 to 25 feet below the levee, the state's forensic levee investigation team concluded in a report to be released this week.
That miscalculation was so obvious and fundamental, investigators said, they "could not fathom" how the design team of engineers from the corps, local firm Eustis Engineering and the national firm Modjeski and Masters could have missed what is being termed the costliest engineering mistake in American history. . . .
"It's simply beyond me," said Billy Prochaska, a consulting engineer in the forensic group known as Team Louisiana. "This wasn't a complicated problem. This is something the corps, Eustis, and Modjeski and Masters do all the time. Yet everyone missed it -- everyone from the local offices all the way up to Washington."
This will cause a lot of conspiracy theories to unravel.
"
ABC News: Politics: "Balancing Their Own Disaster-Relief Needs, Regions Face Dilemma Over Katrina Relief Spending"
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. -- Three months ago, Katrina all but scoured this old beach town of 8,000 off the face of the Earth. To walk its streets today is to see acres of wreckage almost as untouched as the day the hurricane passed."
CBS News: "FEMA settled a disagreement Wednesday with one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders to help 1,500 Hurricane Katrina families into rent-free houses for 18 months."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "The whereabouts of 6,644 people reported missing after Hurricane Katrina have not been determined, raising the prospect that ..."
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "The federal government has spent or obligated through contracts more than $18 billion in Hurricane Katrina relief, meaning that in just over two months, storm recovery costs have already drawn even with the record spending package that the United States has been using to fund Iraq reconstruction for the past two years."
CBS News - 60 Minutes (SUN): "Hurricane Katrina sped up an inexorable process, a natural disaster expert tells Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes. New Orleans, he says, is sliding into the sea."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "A government agency has run out of funds to cover flood insurance claims and, in an unprecedented move, has stopped payments ..."
CBS News: "More than two months after her death, Freeman's relatives and friends gathered at a funeral home Wednesday to celebrate her life. In death, Ethel Freeman became an anonymous symbol of the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina."
AP Politics: "NEW ORLEANS - A politically connected business that landed $108 million in no-bid FEMA contracts to supply emergency housing to Hurricane Katrina victims violated state law because it did not have a Louisiana license to sell new trailer homes, a state commission has found. The business is a motorcycle shop owned by the father and uncle of state Rep. Gary Smith."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "FEMA is stepping up the pressure on some 53,000 families left homeless by hurricanes to leave government-paid hotel rooms and ..."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "More than a month after the official search for victims of Hurricane Katrina ended, the death toll in Louisiana has jumped by ..."
CNN: Politics: "Former Federal Emergency Management Director Michael Brown, who resigned after stinging criticism of his handling of the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, exchanged e-mails about his appearance on the day of the storm and seemed "out of touch" after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, a Louisiana congressman charged Wednesday."
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "The lessons learned apply to other US cities - and need to be quickly absorbed in the Big Easy."
Toronto Star: World: "NEW ORLEANS%u2014Within a space of 15 hours on Aug. 29, three massive, concrete floodwalls in separate parts of the city suddenly fractured and burst under the weight of surging waters from Hurricane Katrina. The breaches unleashed a wall of water that swept entire buildings from their foundations and transformed what might have been a routine hurricane into the costliest storm in U.S. history. "
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "For 16 critical hours, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, including former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding, the staffer told the Senate yesterday."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
BBC: World: "E-mails show chaos inside the US emergency agency in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
Reuters: Top News: "NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Saturday the city's financial condition remains bleak and that he is still looking for funds that will prevent further layoffs of municipal workers."
Independent: World News: "Reality and myths: after the flood, the hard truths"
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "Planners look to reconceive what took 300 years to evolve."
Reuters: Top News: "A newly formed "looting squad" of about 100 officers will start patrolling throughout the city on Monday, in addition to normal patrols, said New Orleans Police Department spokesman Capt. Marlon Defillo."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "The American Red Cross estimates that more than 350,000 homes were destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while an additional ..."
Reuters: Top News: "New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday said the city, ravaged by two hurricanes in late August and September, could accommodate up to 200,000 people, and that about 80,000 of the 455,000 pre-hurricane population was already back in town."
CNN Money: Economy: "Read full story for latest details."
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "More than 400,000 people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina will remain in hotel rooms beyond the Oct. 15 deadline set for their relocation, the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday, extending a program that is costing an estimated $8.3 million a day."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday that New Orleans has to lay off as many as 3,000 workers, about 40% of its total payroll, because ..."
BBC: World: "The search for Hurricane Katrina victims in Louisiana ends, with the state's death toll standing at 964."
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "Two weeks before President Bush's mid-October goal for moving Hurricane Katrina victims out of shelters, more than 100,000 people still reside in such makeshift housing, and 400,000 more are in hotel rooms costing up to $100 a night."
CBS News: "New Orleans residents returned home to neighborhoods that escaped serious flooding, but were greeted with the smelly stench of garbage, dirty water and a defective sewage system."
CBS News: CBS Evening News: "Hurricane Katrina has left some people deep in debt. Now, as Bill Whitaker reports, the law is about to make it harder to get out."
CNN: World: "Four New Orleans police officers have been suspended and one has been reassigned over allegations of looting in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina, acting Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Thursday."
CNN Money: Economy: "A balky new government computer system is delaying low-interest loans for homeowners and businesses hurt by Hurricane Katrina, according to a published report."
Reuters: Top News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military failed to provide adequate emergency communications for Hurricane Katrina response, contributing to days of confusion after the storm devastated Mississippi and Louisiana, the admiral in charge of domestic defense forces said on Thursday."
CBS News: "State, local and federal officials all have different ideas about where to start in New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin isn't waiting: He's letting almost 200,000 residents come back to the city and stay, even though other officials say it's premature."
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "While they appear to conflict, urgency and patience are both needed in the rebuilding effort."
USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Hurricane Katrina has dispersed 1.3 million Gulf Coast households to communities in every state from Maine to Hawaii, according ..."
CBS News: "Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco didn't respond to the ex-FEMA chief's accusations that her state government was "dysfunctional" during Katrina. Instead, she asked Congress for help restoring her state's economy by creating jobs."
ABC News: Politics: "Ex-FEMA Director Brown Blames Others for Katrina Response, Especially La. Gov., New Orleans Mayor"
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "ABOVE SOUTHERN LOUISIANA, Sept. 27 -- It's gone. Plain gone."
Toronto Star: World: "WASHINGTON - Former top U.S. disaster official Michael Brown, on the hot seat today for the botched response to hurricane Katrina, blamed state and local officials for delaying a mandatory evacuation order of New Orleans and said he asked the White House for help. "
ABC News: Politics: "Brown's Claims Not Fully Supported by FEMA Hurricane Response Plan"
Toronto Star: World: "NEW ORLEANS - About 250 police officers, roughly 15 per cent of the force, will be investigated for leaving their posts without permission during hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, a deputy police chief said today. "
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "Prestorm traffic jams in Houston have caused cities to reevaluate their emergency evacuation plans."
Washington Post: Today's Highlights: "BEAUMONT, Tex., Sept. 26 -- Along the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Louisiana border Monday, the landscape lay littered with snapped utility poles and more than half a million customers were without power. Floodwaters began to recede, but many homes and buildings remained submerged in the Louisiana bayou."
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "Tax cuts that benefit the wealthy will be hard to maintain as hurricane cleanup costs set in."
CNN: World: "As waters recede one day after Hurricane Rita struck the U.S. Gulf Coast, the damage becomes apparent. In some Louisiana towns up to 90 percent of homes are destroyed, with one parish as much as 15 feet under water, officials say."
Reuters: Top News: "ABBEVILLE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Rescuers waded through water or used boats and helicopters to search for people stranded in Louisiana's flooded Cajun country on Sunday, but U.S. officials breathed a sigh of relief that Hurricane Rita's passage had caused little loss of life."
Toronto Star: World: "NEW ORLEANS%u2014Hurricane Rita's wind-driven storm surge topped one of New Orleans' battered levees and poked holes in another yesterday, sending water gushing into already-devastated neighbourhoods just days after they had been pumped dry. "
Christian Science Monitor: All Stories: "Disaster experts join calls to assemble a panel outside of government to examine the nation's hurricane response."
CBS News: "The governor of Texas reversed southbound highway lanes in order to aid the evacuations, yet traffic away from the expected wrath of Hurricane Rita remained bumper-to-bumper. For some Katrina evacuees, it's deja vu."
CNN: World: "Hurricane Rita's winds were at 175 mph Thursday as it spun closer to the Texas coast -- where it is projected to make landfall early Saturday -- and as thousands of residents began streaming from the Gulf Coast."
CNN: Politics: "Read full story for latest details."
Reuters: Top News: "GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Cars clogged Texas highways with more than a million people fleeing Hurricane Rita on Thursday as the storm roared through the Gulf of Mexico on a potentially catastrophic course."
CNN: Politics: "The former director of FEMA will testify next week as part of a House committee's probe into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina."
CBS News: "The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 on Wednesday, nearly 80 percent of the 1,036 deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina across the Gulf Coast region as engineers raced to shore up damaged levees before Hurricane Rita hits."
