After the state took nearly a year and a half to approve a city proposal to remove lead from childcare facilities, the program is stalled with the city, where it’s sat for the past three months. Still, environmentalists are happy that the money is finally free of the state’s tight grips with hopes that work […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Trouble in the moonlighting
In addition to everything else going on with the local men and women in blue last week, a veteran NOPD detective, Herman Franklin, was charged with payroll fraud. The Times-Picayune notes that there is some controversy over the prosecutor’s decision, at first, to remand the detective and another officer to an alternative sentencing program that […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City is $8 million behind in payments to contractor MWH
The city is seven months — and $8 million dollars — behind on payments to the company managing most of its recovery projects, according to a letter sent Wednesday by the company to New Orleans Inspector General Edouard Quatrevaux. The letter was part of the city’s official response to criticisms of the company’s billing practices […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Friday Cop News Drop
1. Fourth NOPD officer charged in Danziger Bridge shooting and cover up Officer Robert Barrios was charged in a bill of information Friday, which could indicate that – like Michael Lohman, Michael Hunter, and Jeffrey Lehrmann before him – he will plead guilty. Additionally, Marion David Ryder, the civilian who posed as a deputy sheriff […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
I hate to name-drop, but Nagin dropped my name!
In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Looking through the most recently released e-mails out of Mayor Ray Nagin’s office, it is interesting that he feels the need to define his post-Katrina role: “I am leading this city to full recovery.” In the e-mail to a […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Louisiana House District 93: Feel the excitement!
Forget the Saints off-season. Pay no mind to HBO’s “Treme.” Real New Orleanians are spending day and night anticipating the May 1 special election to fill the House District 93 seat in the Louisiana Legislature. That seat, which includes the Central Business District and parts of the French Quarter, Treme, Irish Channel, Garden District, Mid-City, […]
Posted inLand Use
City Council suprised to learn of revolver money used for proposed medical district
A new financial commitment for the proposed medical district in Mid-City will leave a $25 million hole in a revolving loan fund given to the city from the state to jump start recovery. The appropriation was described by one of Mayor Ray Nagin’s top lieutenants, Chief Technology Officer Harrison Boyd, during a City Council budget […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
What's Landrieu's view of federal invovlement in NOPD?
More important than the police superintendent search: Does Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu have an position on federal intervention in the NOPD? Should the Department of Justice give Landrieu’s superintendent a chance to implement changes before deciding whether to pursue a civil-rights lawsuit to require criminal-justice reforms? Or should Landrieu require that his superintendent embrace a consent […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Investigations
Possible contract-selection shenanigans could shift AIDS patients away from providers
The New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council, a public body that sets annual priorities for spending millions in federal money, may have improperly gotten involved in recommending a recipient of that money: a member of the council. Aside from the possible conflict of interest, the new contract also has consequences for the patients themselves. That’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Justice Department confirms consideration of consent decree lawsuit against NOPD
This is precisely why Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu’s transition task force is generating so much attention. Yesterday afternoon, Talking Points Memo caught up with Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, who heads the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. He confirmed the feds are considering suing the NOPD to force reform measures under court order and federal […]