new orleans

Great scoop by Lindsay Beyerstein: The BusBank, a sponsor of the truly wild “Tea Party Express” and an outfit that will transport some protesters to the 9/12 “Tea Party” march on Washington, was ensnared in a horrible disaster during the evacuation of New Orleans. The CEO’s defense: “We’re not safety experts. We clearly need to [...]

From The Times-Picayune of New Orleans:
Former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson was found guilty of 11 of 16 corruption charges today by a federal jury. [...]
Jefferson was charged with soliciting bribes and other crimes for a series of schemes in which he helped American businesses broker deals in West African in exchange for payments or financial [...]

Reuters has a “Factbox” today outlining the threat of Hurricane Gustav to U.S. oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Gustav presents the first major threat since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused oil spills in 2005.
Here are some highlights from Reuters’ highlights of the energy situation: All of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output has [...]

President George W. Bush is saying that the emergency response to Hurricane Gustav is far better than the response to Katrina in 2005. The president canceled his plans to attend the Republican National Convention today in order to fly to Texas and oversee emergency response efforts to Gustav.
The Republicans also canceled their prime-time programming for [...]

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Sarah Palin Introductory Tour continued through the weekend with stops at a pair of independent-league ballparks in Washington, Pa., a small city 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, and the St. Louis exurb of O’Fallon, Mo. The former rally was essentially a replay of the event in Dayton where Sen. John [...]

At the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Americans are talking about the number of lessons to be learned from the tragedy of that storm and the failure of response by the U.S. government that followed.