Inspector General slams asset control; just one scholarship made public

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Government & Politics

Even with public funding, NOLA for Life Fund grantmaking to continue in private | The Lens – Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration says that it alone controls the source of its NOLA for Life Fund money, which it hands off to a private foundation to disburse. The Landrieu administration says the grantmaking doesn’t have to occur in public, but other nonprofit organizations in New Orleans have been flagged for closing the public out of discussions on how they use taxpayer dollars.

N.O. failed to correct fixed-asset controls, report says | The New Orleans Advocate

In a follow-up report on New Orleans’ internal controls over its fixed assets, Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux said this week that the city has failed to resolve most of the problems cited in his initial report of June 2011.

$1.5B in La. storm recovery aid remains unspent | Associated Press

The flexible block grant rebuilding and strengthening money remains set aside for infrastructure repairs, home rebuilding, school reconstruction and business assistance. …

The amount of unspent cash represents 10 percent of the $14.5 billion in Community Development Block Grant aid that Louisiana received from Congress after the storms.

Environment

Hold against the tides | The Advocate – Important reminder that coastal erosion threatens parishes in Southwest Louisiana, too, and that federal help is necessary to reclaim the entire coastline.  

Marsh cleanup presents challenges for Coast Guard, state | Houma Today – In-depth piece on a tricky issue presented by oil spill cleanup in the Middle Ground marshes. “The question now is whether recovering the oil would do more damage than good.”

How Mass-Produced Meat Turned Phosphorus Into Pollution | Vermont Public Radio – A wonderfully clear explanation of the tension between agriculture and water quality, and the unwelcome domino effect that occurs when modern farming is altered to reduce chemical runoff.

Land Use

Can the Lower Ninth Ward ever recover from Katrina? | PBS NewsHour – The Ninth Ward is unsustainable until more community infrastructure (such as schools and shopping) is put in place, according to Mark Davis, who directs the Tulane law school’s Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

This time the city needs to get St. Roch Market right — a lot depends on it | The Lens – Food and farm expert Darlene Wolnik offers insights on the place of a public market in the renewal of a neighborhood.

Schools

Lone lawmaker releases Tulane scholarship form that leaders want to keep secret | The Advocate – The Advocate and WWL-TV asked all state representatives and senators for copies of the application forms filled out by recipients of Tulane’s legislative scholarship program. So far, only State Sen. Troy Brown, D-Napoleonville, has complied.

Top five Louisiana education stories of 2013 | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – Concise summary of the key debates (read: Common Core, vouchers) surrounding education in Louisiana.

Are the RSD and LDOE actively covering up school wide test cheating that bolsters their performance? | Crazy Crawfish’s Blog – Edu-blogger Jason France, who previously worked at the Louisiana Department of Education, is turning his attentions to how the LDOE handled reports of testing irregularities at Mary D. Coghill Elementary in 2011. France has been unable to find any attempt to investigate the cheating allegations.

Criminal Justice

New Orleans murder rate lowest in decades | The Advocate – Homicides plunged by 20 percent in 2013, despite mysteriously little change in the (projected) total number of non-fatal shootings.