A panel of experts will discuss violations of human rights and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Wednesday evening at Loyola University. Continue reading »
Feb 182014
Oct 102013
The undivided two-way traffic pattern that dominates Jefferson Avenue on the river side of St. Charles Avenue will soon extend to South Claiborne as the drainage-canal installation proceeds. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for overseeing the construction of four major drainage canals around Uptown New Orleans, the federal-government shutdown caused the agency to miss a planned public meeting Thursday about the beginning of the latest phase on Jefferson Avenue. Continue reading »
Oct 012013
(map via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
Boh Brothers Construction Co., the contractor currently installing a drainage canal on Napoleon Avenue between Claiborne Avenue and Carondelet Street, won the contract last week for the final phase of extending that canal down to Constance Street, authorities said. Continue reading »
Sep 242013
New Orleans health commissioner Karen DeSalvo, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and Sterling Farms co-founder Troy Henry are introduced during a forum at the Prytania Theatre on Tuesday evening. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
“We are represented by a Republican and a Democrat, and both of them need a call this week about this vote,” said MSNBC host and Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry. Continue reading »
Sep 232013
Second Harvest Food Bank, which helps feed a quarter of a million South Louisiana residents each year, is hosting a free screening Tuesday evening at the Prytania Theatre of “A Place at the Table,” a documentary about the struggles of Americans on food stamps. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, New Orleans Health Commissioner Karen DeSalvo and Troy Henry of Sterling Farms will participate in a panel discussion after the event. Continue reading »
Aug 272013
A representative from the Louisiana Healthcare Education Coalition will host a free workshop for small businesses Wednesday at a St. Charles Avenue restaurant on the reforms to the healthcare system that will be coming as the Affordable Care Act is implemented. Continue reading »
Aug 272013
A spray-painted welcome to President Bush on St. Claude Avenue on Aug. 29, 2006. (photo by jewel bush)
jewel bush
When President George W. Bush’s motorcade drove down St. Claude Avenue on August 29, 2006 — the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — there were many signs, like sentries, stationed along his route to Fats Domino’s house in the Ninth Ward, one stop on his itinerary of ceremonial rounds.
The messages, posted on signs lined along the neutral ground and on the actual storm-clobbered buildings, weren’t flattering greetings from the city’s welcome committee. The collective reverberation to the commander in chief’s obligatory pilgrimage to the place he neglected a year earlier was that of a shimmering rage, pithy and piercing in delivery.
One of the strongest indicators of this sentiment was a lop-sided, green Port-a-Potty positioned on the very edge of the neutral ground somewhere along St. Claude, a strategic locale sure to catch the eye of, if not, the president himself, someone in his party. Among protest notes scribbled in gold spray paint on all four sides of this freestanding structure, the standout read: “Reserved for Bush.”
Mr. President, welcome to New Orleans. Continue reading »
Aug 012013
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
We are among the many thousands who are remembering Lindy Boggs with love today, relishing the moments we spent with her and celebrating her remarkable life.
Although we were certainly not members of her inner circle, Lindy always treated us – and everyone else – as though we were.
Allan always thought there was a special feminine bond between Lindy and other women, especially those like Danae, who were driven by a great work ethic and a desire to get things done. For thousands of women of accomplishment, Lindy was the ultimate role model who got things done in Congress, at the Vatican and in her own private life. Danae loved to be in Lindy’s company. Allan thought they both glowed when they laughed together and swapped stories about their lives. Continue reading »
May 132013
Owen Courreges
This past Tuesday, Senator Mary Landrieu proposed an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that would stop the implementation of National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) premium increases that Congress imposed last year. Senator David Vitter is co-sponsoring the amendment.
However, both agree that the NFIP needs to be self-sustaining. Thus, Louisiana’s Senators are agreed first, that the NFIP should pay for itself, and secondly, that this should not result in massive premium increases that spur voters to kick their keisters out of office.
At first blush, it sounds like Louisiana’s Senators are saying that chocolate should taste good but shouldn’t make you get fat. That’s not quite the case. Continue reading »
Mar 262013
jewel bush
Denis Chirinos-Avila is one of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States, but the right word to describe him is not “alien” or “illegal” or any other common epithet used to refer to those who live and work here without paperwork.
Denis Chirinos-Avila is scared.
The 27-year-old construction worker has lived day in and day out in a paralyzing fear that his open secret would be exposed, that he would be deported away from the life he has established in New Orleans for more than seven years. Would he be questioned in the grocery store? Or on the way to work? Or accompanying his partner, Reina, to one of her prenatal checkups? Continue reading »
Dec 272012
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
Nov 082012
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
Allan was wrong, as usual. He thought that Governor Mitt Romney was still riding the momentum of his fine performance in the first Presidential debate. Unfortunately for Romney and the Republican Party, the Romney momentum was overpowered by the winds of Hurricane Sandy and the pictures of President Obama being presidential, bringing aid and solace to the stricken. Continue reading »
Aug 172012
Gary Landrieu, the outspoken cousin of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, will make a second bid for public office with a run for Congress this fall, after coming in fifth out of a field of seven in this past spring’s at-large City Council election. Continue reading »
Aug 172012
A host of prominent New Orleans Republicans said this week that they have never heard of the lone challenger so far to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, Josue Larose, who filed to run as a member of their party on Wednesday.
But the hard-to-find candidate shares a name and a former address with a perennial candidate in Florida the political press there dubbed “Super PAC Man,” whose thousands of alleged campaign-finance violations and hyperactive registration of odd political action committees drew the tongue-in-cheek “admiration” of political prankster Stephen Colbert. Continue reading »
Aug 172012
Allan Katz and Danae Columbus
The teams are complete, the matchups are clear. These guys don’t like one another and their philosophies could hardly be more different.
There was a time in America when then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace could run for President as an independent complaining that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates. That isn’t really a problem in 2012. The Obama-Biden view of the world is just about 360 degrees apart from the Romney-Ryan view of the world. Continue reading »
Aug 172012
Uptown voters will see little change in their ballots for the Nov. 6 election after a quiet Thursday of filing. Continue reading »
Jun 082012
U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond
Apr 112012
Former Gov. Buddy Roemer, who dropped his often-ignored bid for the Republican Presidential nomination to continue as a third-party or independent candidate, will bring his populist, anti-corporate message to Tulane University this afternoon. Continue reading »
May 162011
Spectators look at the rising Mississippi River at the Audubon Riverside Park last Tuesday. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
The rising levels of Mississippi River are consuming conversations across the city. This Sunday, curiously got the better of me and I woke up early and decided to walk over to the river levee. The river was, and remains, disturbingly high. At the Steamboat Natchez, the flood gauge read about 15.5 feet. Where normally you would see several yards of rock on the banks, you could now only see about one yard, if that.
Some are saying that this is a 500-year flood event. The Bonnet Carre Spillway and the Morganza Spillway have been opened simultaneously for the first time since 1973. The Birds Point Floodway in Missouri had already been blasted open, the first time in history all three have been utilized. Continue reading »
May 092011
Map of the three phases of the streetcar expansion (via NORTA.com)
Streetcars are an iconic fixture in New Orleans, a reflection of our city’s connection to the past. Although the technology is old and often inefficient, we cling to these aging steel transports because of their beauty, craftsmanship and history. Continue reading »