Congress

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Look out for the Tea Party influence on all our lives

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As readers are well aware, the Tea Party is a growing anti-big government movement that seeks to change American politics by often promising to get government out of the lives of citizens – as if that is even remotely possible. Most people of our generation began their voting lives as Democrats.  We understand that when people get a little older, more successful and sometimes more conservative, they might transition from being moderate Democrats to Republicans. That’s fine. But right-leaning Tea Party Republicans are as out-of-step with middle America as the left-leaning fringes of the Democratic party. And they certainly won’t help the Republican party attract the ever-growing number of  Hispanic, Asian and African-American voters they must have to win another presidential election.  As the voting majority nationally because more non-white each year, both parties are scrambling to embrace those voters.

Congress

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Can Edwin Edwards overcome obstacles to win a seat in Congress?

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The conventional wisdom is that former Governor Edwin W. Edwards can’t be serious about running for the open seat in the Sixth Congressional District or, if he is serious, has no chance to win. The 86-year-old Silver Fox, still looking good and as engaging as ever, made it as clear as he could at a recent reception that drew hundreds of his Metro New Orleans friends that he is running, expects to run first in the Nov. 4 primary and believes he’ll have a chance in the Dec. 6 runoff against whichever Republican comes out of a crowd of candidates to take him on in the general election. His critics say that it is incredible that Edwards, who just completed an eight-year prison stint in a federal pen three years ago, could actually have a chance to go to Congress.

business

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Higher minimum wage will help build middle class

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We have been watching with much interest the national and Louisiana debate regarding increasing the minimum wage to $10.10. The latest polls show that support is growing across the nation, although only seven states and the District of Columbia have raised starting pay. According to today’s New York Times, Louisiana is one of five states – the others being Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee – that currently does not have a minimum wage. Washington State has the highest wage ($9.32) currently with D.C. to move to $11.50 in 2016. While both those rates might be too high for Louisiana’s economy, something must be done to give our lowest paid citizens a better opportunity to succeed in life.

colleges

Loyola hosts panel discussion on human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay

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A panel of experts will discuss violations of human rights and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Wednesday evening at Loyola University. The free event aims to elicit critical thinking and activism with “12 Years of Guantanamo: What Does It Mean to Us?”, beginning at 7 p.m. in Loyola University’s Miller Hall, room 114. For more information, please refer to the following press release from Loyola University:

Speakers at a free panel discussion Wednesday, Feb. 19 at Loyola University New Orleans will seek to prove that human rights violations at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention facilities are not a forgotten thing of the past. Loyola’s event, aiming to educate the public on what’s really going on inside the detention center, features Pardiss Kebriaei, J.D., a Center for Constitutional Rights attorney representing men currently and formerly detained at Guantanamo Bay, and an assistant U.S. attorney, John Murphy, J.D., formerly the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay.

city government

Amid government shutdown, Corps of Engineers skips Jefferson Avenue drainage canal meeting

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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. The trees have already been cleared from the Jefferson Avenue neutral ground for the $56 million canal from South Claiborne to Dryades, and B&K Construction Co. will soon begin actual construction in the coming weeks. The first task is to relocate all the utilities — starting with a major junction at Clara Street — and traffic will be moved into the same two-way side-by-side configuration already in place on Jefferson on the riverside of St. Charles.

city government

Same contractor to extend new drainage canal down Napoleon through 2016

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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. The $55 million phase currently under construction began in September of 2011 and is expected to end in March 2015. The final phase awarded this week, a $38 million contract, is expected to be finished in 2016. For details, see the news release from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District recently awarded a 38-month contract to provide increased drainage for the Uptown area. The contract includes canal improvements along Napoleon Avenue between Carondelet and Constance Streets.

Congress

Panelists at Prytania decry proposed cuts to food stamps, but praise anti-hunger efforts in New Orleans

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Major proposed cuts to the federal food-stamp programs could be devastating to a cycle of hunger and poverty that already exists in America, even while New Orleans is making strides in the right direction against those trends, a trio of panelists agreed Tuesday evening. “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. Last week, Republicans in Congress narrowly passed a bill cutting $40 billion from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over the next 10 years, leaving its cost at more than $700 billion over the next decade while removing nearly 4 million people from the program next year, according to the New York Times. Republicans argue that the program has grown too large and added measures limiting the time people can stay in the program and requiring drug testing for recipients. Supporters of the program say it has kept 4 million people out of poverty and that continued improvements in the economy would end their dependence on the program naturally.

Congress

Second Harvest hosts free screening of “A Place at the Table” documentary at the Prytania

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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. For details, see the news release from Second Harvest below:

Second Harvest Food Bank Offers FREE Screening of ‘A Place at the Table’

WHO:                   Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana in association with Participant Media and Active Voice are hosting a FREE screening of ‘A Place at the Table’

WHAT:                 Second Harvest Food Bank would like to invite you to a FREE screening of this important documentary to talk about Hunger in America. Almost 50 million Americans struggle with hunger every day. Many families rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) to help stretch their grocery budget, however preparing three meals a day for a family on approximately $6 seems like an impossible task.

business

Free workshop for small businesses on Affordable Care Act changes

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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. For details, see the news release from the LCI Association below:

LCI Workers’ Comp to Host Workshop in New Orleans:
“What’s Going on with Healthcare?” What Your Business Needs to Know about the Affordable Care Act

LCI Workers’ Comp will host an educational workshop focusing on healthcare reform on Wednesday, August 28 from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM at Zea Rotisserie & Grill in New Orleans. The event will feature a speaker from the Louisiana Healthcare Education Coalition (LHEC), an organization whose mission is to educate business owners and individuals about the healthcare changes set to take place. The LHEC speaker will give an overview of the Affordable Care Act with an emphasis on its effects on small businesses.

city government

jewel bush: Will New Orleans ever be ‘post-Katrina’?

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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.