When Gov. Kathleen Blanco pushed her Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority through the Legislature last month, she touted it as a way to consolidate efforts for hurricane protection, coastal restoration and levee oversight. It was a feel-good measure and meant to be inclusive, but like everything else with a ticking pulse and finite membership slots, lawmakers jostled over who would be appointed to the authority. Even some committee chairmen wanted a hand in the selection process. But one group, Parishes Against Coastal Erosion, was overlooked. "We asked the governor to let us have a member on it, but she told us no," says Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph, one of PACE's vice presidents. Membership in the multi-parish organization includes officials such as City-Parish President Joey Durel, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle. The group has already made a name for itself by lobbying the Legislature, and a few hard stances on controversial topics are expected in the future. Currently, PACE is circulating a petition to increase Louisiana's share of offshore oil and gas revenues to 50 percent. ' Jeremy Alford
SESSION SIGNS
A groundswell of support is forming for a January special session of the Legislature. Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, a grassroots coalition of businesses and civic activists, has collected more than 46,000 signatures asking lawmakers and the governor to call the session to address levee board reform. "They are rising in anger against patronage politics and special interest deal-making by the political elite," says Jay Lapeyre, a founder of the group and chairman of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region. ' JA
NUTRIA, SNAILS AND ARMADILLOS
It's no secret that nutria are often the culprits munching on marshland and eroding once-solid land ' they love the stuff and have insatiable appetites. But newspapers around the state have been picking up on another pest. Researchers from Brown and Louisiana State universities, according to The Times-Picayune, have discovered millions of marble-sized periwinkle snails chomping their way through wetlands buffering the Gulf of Mexico. And destruction on hurricane protection layers is not confined to nutria and snails. A 1.6-mile stretch of levee along Bayou Segnette in Jefferson Parish had to be repaired in 1995 ' due to burrowing armadillos. ' JA
ROUTES TO RETURN TO N.O.
Last week, Nick Spitzer, host of the nationally syndicated radio program American Routes, announced that his radio program and its staff would be returning to New Orleans after finding shelter in Lafayette with KRVS 88.7 FM since Hurricane Katrina ("Re-Routed," Oct.19). In an e-mail, Spitzer wrote: "I think we all felt that we had to return to our New Orleans home(s) to help with the rebuilding effort, fulfill our professional commitments, and see what the future holds. It's the appropriate place for us now to continue our conversation about music and culture from and to this region ... and to the nation as a whole." The show will move back to New Orleans after the first of the year to Basin Street Station. ' R. Reese Fuller
BOWLED OVER
The New Orleans Bowl drew more than 18,000 college football fans to Lafayette last week and gave the Hub City some nice national exposure on ESPN. In a different kind of bowl game, Cajundome officials put out the call for volunteers for "The Great Cajundome Flush-off," a test of the Dome's 200 toilets and urinals. ' Scott Jordan
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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