Good Hands, Good Neighbors, and Not-So-Good Faith

This is a long post. But if you make it to the end, you get a prize.

CNN investigated how insurance companies handled minor car accidents:

Since the mid-1990s, most of the major insurance companies -- led by the two largest, Allstate and State Farm -- have adopted a tough take-it-or-leave-it strategy when dealing with such cases.

***

In an affidavit in a New Mexico case where Allstate is being sued, one of the company's former attorneys said the strategy is to make fighting the company "so expensive and so time-consuming that lawyers would start refusing to help clients."

Shannon Kmatz, a police officer and former Allstate claims agent, said company employees were encouraged to get rid of claims quickly and cheaply and even offered accident victims as little as $50, telling them to take it or leave it.

***

The strategy, according to former Allstate and State Farm employee Jim Mathis, relies on the three D's -- denying a claim, delaying settlement of the claim and defending against the claim in court.

Interesting strategy. Where did it come from?

For Allstate and State Farm, according to documents obtained by CNN, the strategy was developed in the mid-1990s with the assistance of consulting giant McKinsey & Co.

Looking for a way to boost profits, McKinsey focused on soft-tissue injuries incurred in minor crashes.

David Berardinelli provides an example of how the strategy can boost profits:

Berardinelli is the author of "From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves," a book based on some 12,500 PowerPoint slides that fell into his hands during a lawsuit against Allstate Insurance Co.

The slides had been presented to Allstate between 1992 and 1997 by management consultant McKinsey & Co. as part of an overhaul (the Claim Core Process Redesign) of the insurer's claims handling process. Much of the presentation encourages Allstate to adopt a hard-nosed approach to claims.

One typical slide picked from the book refers to taking a stricter stance on settlements: "Stand firm on final offer with no real negotiation."

Another - and the inspiration for the book's title - distinguishes between the treatment to be accorded to customers who hire a lawyer to press for a higher payout and those who don't: The unrepresented get the "good hands" approach (settlements within 200 days or so); the lawyered get "boxing gloves" (resolution that could take three years or longer).

Shannon Kmatz, also quoted in the previous article, shows that the recommendations from McKinsey were put into practice:

The strategy outlined in the slides sounds much like the marching orders Shannon Brady Kmatz says she got when she was an Allstate claims adjuster. Kmatz, who left Allstate in 2000, says she felt under constant pressure to "fast-track" claims - that is, settle quickly for as little as possible.

"We called it throwing them a bone," she said. "You offer $500 and hope they go away."

She said she was also evaluated on how successful she was at convincing people to accept the company's offer rather than try to get more money by hiring an attorney. Adjusters who excelled at these goals, Kmatz says, were rewarded with free dinners and bonuses that could add up to a few thousand dollars a year.

Berardinelli sums it up:

Claimants in the "good hands" category may get swift reimbursement, but they will end up with less than they're entitled to, he says. Those who hold out for more -- and retain a lawyer to help them get it -- face battering in the courts and potentially years of delay. "You can get your claims resolved promptly or fairly," he argues, "but not both."

CNN concluded that this strategy was used on car accident claims. But, if it was profitable in the car insurance division, why not in the homeowners division?

Gary T. Fye of Nevada, an expert in the analysis of disputed insurance claims, has testified for policyholders in insurance cases.

Fye said: "The ACE redesign [McKinsey’s strategy] is an example of a strategic initiative. A strategic initiative changes everything, including basic assumptions of claims handling. ACE has been very problematic for policyholders and their lawyers because it is so difficult to trace. The company has changed nomenclature and purged documentation to conceal the origins and scope of these strategies."

Fye said teachings from ACE filtered down to State Farm Fire and Casualty, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual, in 1997.

And it is hard not to see the “throw ‘em a bone” strategy and the “three D’s” being used in hurricane claims.

Throw ‘em a bone:

To date [Feb 10], State Farm says, it has paid an average of $25,030 for structural damage to 794 policyholders left with slabs or pilings. State Farm had been unwilling to release the figure before Friday.

If your house ain’t dere no more, I don’t think $25,030 is gonna get it back.

Denial is the biggest of the three D’s:

Where wind damage covered by State Farm and water damage covered by federal flood insurance could not be separated, the company denied claims, infuriating policyholders on the waterfront from state line to state line.

And this denial gem:

In September 2005, while Oklahoma City attorney Jeff Marr prepared his case against State Farm for using biased vendors to deny policyholder claims from a 1999 tornado, the company descended on the Mississippi Coast in response to Hurricane Katrina with the same cast in tow.

***

He [Marr] represents 70 Oklahomans whose homes were subjected to the most severe category of tornado, an F5, on May 3, 1999.

No matter what the catastrophe, he said, in one interview, "the objective is the same: You go find an expert that's bought and paid for and you go get them to give you a report that justifies denial of the claim. Period.

"They represented that these engineers came up here to do an objective and fair assessment of these homes. And they got quite the opposite. Not one report agrees with the policyholder on the nature and extent of the damage. They all sided with State Farm."

A jury found in May that State Farm "intentionally and with malice breached its duty to deal fairly and act in good faith" with policyholders through the use of Haag Engineering Co. and independent adjusting firm E.A. Renfroe.

Haag, one of the companies State Farm used when it "intentionally and with malice breached its duty to deal fairly and act in good faith," then sent employee Timothy P. Marshall to the Gulf Coast to author a survey that would be used to determine claims:

In the survey, Marshall estimated Katrina's peak wind gusts at 115 mph in Bay St. Louis, the hardest-hit area. He concluded the storm surge arrived before peak winds and that there was no tornado damage along the Coast.

Reports from other sources measured wind gusts of 140 miles per hour, found evidence of tornados or tornadic winds and of wind damage well in advance of Katrina's unprecedented surge.

State Farm, Nationwide, Allstate and USAA relied on site-specific Haag reports, along with those of other engineering firms, to assess damage, Marshall has said in sworn testimony.

Attorneys who oppose State Farm believe the initial Haag survey played into the policy language the company used to deny hundreds of claims for homes and businesses Katrina swept away. The language purports to say no wind coverage exists if storm surge ultimately caused the loss. A federal judge has found the language "ambiguous" and "unenforceable," but State Farm has appealed the decision.

From tornados to hurricanes, insurance companies are acting in bad faith. And they are doing it following similar not-so-consumer-friendly strategies, sometimes formulated by the same consulting firm for several insurance companies, and sharing industry favorable estimates from the same company.

So, consumers are paying more for policies and insurance companies are paying less for claims, resulting in billions of dollars of profit for the insurance companies despite record breaking disaster losses. The insurance industry looks like it can do whatever it wants – not unlike a monopoly. Unfortunately, insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws.

Then again:

Senate and House leaders, including Sen. Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, moved to rein in the insurance industry Thursday by introducing legislation repealing the industry's federal antitrust exemption.

Lott, a fierce critic of the insurance industry's response to Hurricane Katrina, joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., on the Senate floor to introduce the bill, S 618. In the House, Taylor, Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and others announced the introduction of identical legislation.

"Federal oversight would provide confidence that the industry is not engaging in the most egregious forms of anticompetitive conduct - price-fixing, agreements not to pay, and market allocations," said Leahy. "Insurers may object to being subject to the same antitrust laws as everyone else, but if they are operating in an honest and appropriate way, they should have nothing to fear."

And now, your prize. It’s my...

"We didn't know."

No more comment necessary:

Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan had a 20-year-old suspected killer within his grasp only a day ago, yet let him walk out of jail before he could bring the suspect to court on a felony gun charge.

***

But before Jordan's team can prosecute Treg on the gun charge, they have to find him. Because he had posted bond on the gun charge last year, he was able to walk out of jail not long after midnight Friday. The fact that Treg had been released from jail came as a surprise for prosecutors Friday.

"We didn't know," said Dalton Savwoir, Jordan's spokesman.

Setback?

Why is this a setback?

In Setback for New Orleans, Fed-Up Residents Give Up

***

A year ago, Ms. Larsen, 36, and Mr. Langlois, 37, were hopeful New Orleanians eager to rebuild and improve the city they adored. But now they have joined hundreds of the city’s best and brightest who, as if finally acknowledging a lover’s destructive impulses, have made the wrenching decision to leave at a time when the population is supposed to be rebounding.

People are going to leave. Some of them will be of the “best and brightest” bunch. Let them leave in peace.

They will be replaced.

We fault our leaders for not making tough decisions. I will not fault residents who do make tough decisions, like leaving. It is far better for them to leave than to stay with one foot in and one foot out. That’s only good when you’re doing the hokey pokey.

Rebuilding the area will take two feet in.

And the NY Times article is the second time I saw leaving referred to as treason:

In battered but proud New Orleans, abandonment is a highly emotional subject, in part because many have made sacrifices to stay and rebuild. To some, leaving now is tantamount to treason.

The other day I read a NewsHour essay by Chris Rose:

One day we'll tell you we're making progress. And the next day, we're looking at want ads in Houston and Atlanta. Anyone who doesn't have a Plan B for the future here is crazy. Anyone who admits it is treated like a traitor.

You are not a traitor if you leave. You are making the decision that you think is right. Of course, you may be wrong. But you are not a traitor.

I will not put down another person’s decision to leave in order to make my decision to stay look better.

As the t-shirt says, "It's not beautiful being easy." And things won't be easy in the Big Easy for a while. Everyone must bear that burden. Even the "best and brightest."

In fact, I expect more out of the best and brightest. They are equipped to bear the biggest and heaviest burden, or at least pick up the slack.

Or pick up and go. Do whatcha wanna. Hang on the corner...

200 Strong

Cliff’s Crib asked for “at least 100 black men that are positive, strong, and working hard to do the right thing” and received more than 200. No surprise, really.

And I bet those 200 plus black men had positive, strong, and hard-working-right-thing-doing black men and women as their role models. If they didn’t, then I am sure they will be that person for the next generation.

The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to be good. I’m working on it.

More Than Just Numbers

But if you are keeping count, murders number 23 and 24:

Two men were shot to death and a third critically wounded shortly inside a park car in the 9th Ward shortly before 6:30 p.m. Thursday, police said.

The Mayor showed up:

Mayor Ray Nagin was at the shooting scene and was seen comforting shaken residents who lived nearby.

I give the Mayor credit because he definitely had to go out of his way to get to this crime scene. It was tucked away in the 9th Ward before the Industrial Canal and behind the St. Claude bridge – no where near the parades or touristy areas.

UPDATE: WWL-TV headline - "Nine peope shot in less than seven hours," with a statement from the Mayor:

“Last month, I stated that one murder is too many in our community, our fragile city that is still on the journey to recovery. Tonight, I am deeply saddened that our young people continue dying in our streets.

“As I continue to work to address the systemic problems that have plagued our criminal justice system for decades, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of addressing educational and social problems that have plague our community for just as long.

“I commend the clergy for stepping up and working with the city to help our youth find a way out of a life of crime. We must all work together and unify as a community to save our children from violence.”

“This Ain’t Jerusalem”

No, it’s New Orleans:

He [Mandell Duplessis] was a seventh-grade dropout who had been dealing drugs since he was a teenager.

***

So home he went, about two months after the storm, to his old turf, and his old career.

Months later, Duplessis was dead. He was found fatally shot Aug. 4 on the steps of a trailer in the working-class neighborhood of Gentilly. It made for a minor post-Katrina story, but a depressingly common one in a city with a homicide rate that was the highest in the nation in the last six months, and about 15 times the national average.

Like many of the residents swept up in New Orleans' latest wave of violence, Duplessis was young, black and versed in the drug trade.

So, too, was the man police accused of pulling the trigger, a convicted drug dealer named Garelle Smith. Though apparently strangers, their life stories were remarkably similar.

You can not brush this off as “bad guys killing bad guys.” Every murder hurts the community.

The “bad guys” are often the fathers of the next generation, either by influence:

Duplessis, in his songs, described a different kind of epiphany, one sparked by the sight of a friend from the 'hood who had acquired a slick new car.

It was "a whip [that] looked like a space shuttle," Duplessis rapped. "I knew right then my whole focus in life was to hustle."

Or biologically:

When he [Duplessis] moved into his own place, drugs paid his rent. They paid for expensive sneakers, a fancy GMC Yukon Denali truck, and for the upbringing of the daughter he had fathered with an estranged girlfriend.

Just as the “bad guys” were influenced by their previous generation:

His mother loved him, but she was too strung out to raise a child. So Duplessis moved in with his grandparents when he was in the second grade.

***

Duplessis' mother sent him to a Catholic grade school until her drug habit ate into her finances. So he started sixth grade in a public school system that was considered among the nation's worst. Two years later, he dropped out.

***

Neighbors said [Garelle] Smith's father wasn't around much. Nor was his mother, Lynette K. Smith. She was arrested numerous times, and sentenced, in 1994, to two years in prison for crack possession and theft, court records show. The task of raising Garelle and his two sisters fell to their grandmother, Theresa.

This excuses nothing. But it explains a lot.

Our problems span generations. Our solutions don’t. We are too caught up on catching the bad guys, rather than preventing the bad guys.

Sure, we catch them. Mandell Duplessis had been caught before. Here’s a mug shot from 2004. And Garelle Smith was caught before, at least twice for murder.

The thing is, in 2006 they were both still up to no good. Duplessis’ rap lyrics suggest he was dealing drugs. After beating two murder arrests, Smith was arrested a third time for Duplessis’ murder.

The criminal justice system gets the bad guys and gals off the street. Then, it either keeps them off the street for life or rehabilitates them. When it works, it is a deterrent and prevents the bad people from doing bad things. In the case of Mandell Duplessis and Garelle Smith, our criminal justice system did none of those.

Warren Riley, Eddie Jordan, and all the judges in New Orleans – federal, state, or municipal – can not solve our problems. They can only deal with the person before them, not the generations before or after that person.

That’s our job. But I don’t know how to do it. I just know I can’t do it alone.

None of us is the savior. This ain't Jerusalem.

A Real Tornado

I was hoping that it wasn’t. But, as the aerial video comes in and people start telling their stories, I see that it was.

Where the po’ family is on the West Bank, we heard the hail smacking against our windows and thunder that sounded like explosions. But we were far from the damage.

What a hurricane is on the macro level, a tornado is on the micro level. While there were less people affected by this tornado than Katrina, they were no less affected. Their recovery begins today. For some of them, it begins again.

The po’ family sends good vibes.

The Posse Celebrates

Happy Darwin Day.

There are various ways to celebrate. I celebrate by focusing on making decisions in my life based on theories which:

1) are supported by mounds of empirical evidence;
2) have been tested over time;
3) make valid predictions.

While these criteria are for scientific theories, they work pretty well in your non-scientific life also.

Sunday Bob Marley

February 6 would have been Bob Marley's 62nd birthday.



"I feel so good in my neighborhood, so here I come again."

Two Sides to Every Story

Sometimes there’s more.

From the Sun Herald, “State Farm tells its side”:

"You kind of step back from it and look over the last month or so and you see, at least I see, examples that sort of strike me as convenient amnesia or schizophrenia, whether we're looking at the political environment, whether we're looking at the legal environment or whether we're looking at the editorial environment," said Michael A. Fernandez, vice president of corporate communications and external relations at State Farm headquarters in Bloomington, Ill.

With all that “convenient amnesia or schizophrenia” going around, it’s a good thing that State Farm keeps records:

To date, State Farm says, it has paid an average of $25,030 for structural damage to 794 policyholders left with slabs or pilings. State Farm had been unwilling to release the figure before Friday.

This is the tough part. Was it the force of the wind which blew over the houses? Or was it a wall of water that knocked them over? Really, there should not be a difference. But we all signed a contract that says there is.

On the flood insurance side, the National Flood Insurance Program paid its claims, even though it didn’t have nearly enough money of its own to do so:

GAO placed the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on its high-risk list in March 2006 because the NFIP will unlikely generate sufficient revenues to repay the billions borrowed from the Department of the Treasury to cover flood claims from the 2005 hurricanes.

***

From September 2005 to March 2006, Congress three times increased FEMA’s authority to borrow from Treasury—from $1.5 billion originally to $20.8 billion—to help pay for claims from the 2005 hurricane season. As of August 31, 2006, the NFIP has paid out $17.3 billion in claims for 2005 floods.

Perspective: the NFIP collects only $2 billion a year in premiums and had used up its meager reserves when the 2005 hurricanes hit. The NFIP will probably borrow all of that $20.8 billion to repay claims filed since 2005. But at least it pays claims.

And in the “wind or water” dispute, when the NFIP paid, State Farm didn’t:

Where wind damage covered by State Farm and water damage covered by federal flood insurance could not be separated, the company denied claims, infuriating policyholders on the waterfront from state line to state line.

Mississippi Representative Gene Taylor has a term for that:

He remains convinced insurers wrote off losses to the National Flood Insurance Program in "one of the biggest Katrina frauds of them all."

I guess that’s the other side.

Steel Courage

Via the_velvet_rut, the 21st murder in New Orleans started as a fist fight and ended with the loser’s mother giving possibly the worst parental advice ever:

Narcisse said Johnson went home and gave details of the fight to his mom, 44-year-old Vanessa Johnson. She gave her son a handgun and told him to get revenge because he had apparently lost the fight.

Clarence Johnson is 17-years-old and still out there somewhere. The mother has been arrested.

This highlights how our violent crime problem spans more than just one generation. It took generations of neglect to arise and will take generations of effort to solve. But there must be a first generation brave enough to start it in order for there to be a next generation to finish it. Varg has some great points on that.

I count this as the 21st murder because this counts as a murder, too:

Today [February 4], the New Orleans Police Department announced the arrest of 21-year-old George Lewis, a local male, and booked him with 2nd degree murder of his girlfriend’s two year-old daughter. The offense occurred yesterday [February 3] at approximately 4:00 p.m,. in the 1400 block of South Lawn Street.

***

The Orleans Parish Coroners autopsy revealed the child suffered internal and external trauma to the body as the cause of death. Detective Raymond Ambose, conducted an investigation and arrested George Lewis and booked him with 2nd degree murder.

Shaking or beating a defenseless two-year-old child to death is as violent as a violent crime can get. It is just as cowardly as winning a fist fight with a gun.

So, in 39 days in 2007, we have had 21 murders. That’s about a murder every other day. It is also a murder rate of 98 murders per 100,000 residents. (My formula: 365 divided by 39 is approximately 9.36; 21 times 9.36 is approximately 196, which is the projection for the year-end total murders assuming the current rate stays the same; 200,000 divided by 100,000 equals 2, which assumes a population of 200,000; 196 divided by 2 equals 98, which is the projected murder rate assuming the current rate stays the same.)

What this also shows is the problem is not getting better. In the last half of 2006 (184 days), there were 106 murders (one of the 1/3/07 murders was classified as a 2006 murder). Using the above formula (365 divided by 106 is approximately 1.98; etc.), that comes to a murder rate of 105 per 100,000 residents in the last half of 2006. While 98 is lower than 105, it’s not much lower. And when the first 39 days of 2007 are added to the last half of 2006 numbers, the murder rate is 101 per 100,000 residents.

In light of the high murder rate and where the murders happen, I understand more why a Central City mother tells her child to use a gun to settle a dispute. I understand that it is both a cause of the problem and a reaction to it. Apparently, living in some parts of New Orleans requires courage of steel and, when that is lacking, steel courage.

Don’t Kill the White People or They Will March

At least, that’s what the NY Times thinks about New Orleans:

Most of the violence involves black men killing other black men. Out of the 161 homicide victims last year, 131 were black men. Most of the suspects were also black men.

When the pattern of black-on-black violence is occasionally broken, white fear and outrage are redoubled. This happened earlier this month after the killing of a white filmmaker, when thousands of people marched on City Hall to demand change, a majority of them whites.

I think it is accurate to say that the majority (over 50 percent) of the marchers were white. I’m not sure how much over 50 percent, but whites were the majority.

It is *not* accurate to conflate white “fear and outrage” of being killed by a black person with the reason people marched last month.

First of all, I am white. My “fear and outrage” were not “redoubled” when “a white filmmaker” was killed. I honestly don’t think that is possible because my fear and outrage had been maxed out for quite a while before that.

Second, Helen Hill was killed – a woman, a mother, an outstanding member of the community. She was killed and her husband, who shared her good qualities, was also shot. In front of their child.

Whether Helen Hill was white or black, how can you not be outraged by that?

Third, to single out any one murder as the cause of the crime march totally ignores the context in which the march took place. There were 162 murders the previous year in a city with less than half of its population back, which meant a murder rate of somewhere around 70 per 100,000 residents. The last half of 2006 saw almost twice as many murders as the second half.

As the title of the article says, our dysfunctional criminal justice system wasn’t working. Eight days into 2007, there were eight murders. The day after the march, two people were shot in Central City. A day after that, two men were murdered.

Dinerral Shavers – a man, a father, an outstanding member of the community – had been killed only days before Helen Hill. He died by the same violence that he had denounced in his singing. He wasn’t the target of the bullet that killed him.

Whether Dinerral Shavers was white or black, how can you not be outraged by that?

This context is why “thousands of people marched on City Hall to demand change.” It was not an occasional break in “the pattern of black-on-black violence” that sparked the march. It was the absence of a break in the pattern of human-on-human violence for the past year.

Did Helen Hill’s murder receive greater attention than that of a black male teenager shot in Central City? Yes. But I would not say that Helen Hill’s murder should have received *less* attention. I would say a murder of a black Central City teenager should receive *more* attention.

And that was the message for City Hall that day. Every one hurts.

Time to act like it.

Sunday Bob Marley

With moving pictures, including Katrina pics.



"We can't take your slogans no more."

A History of Terrorists and the Levees

In reverse chronological order.

Michael Brown, February 2, 2007:

"Had terrorists blown up the levees in New Orleans, the response and recovery would have been different," Brown said, "and I know that, because I've been there."

Mary Landrieu, January 29, 2007:

“I often think we would have been better off if the terrorists had blown up our levees,” she said. “Maybe we’d have gotten more attention.”

Ashley Morris, January 8, 2006:

THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES. THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES.
THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES. THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES.
THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES. THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES.
[etc.]

CNN, October 12, 2005:

"There's only one terrorist around here," said the Louisiana National Guardsman, as he paced outside the New Orleans Convention Center. "And her name is Katrina."

Jim Bernazzani might agree. He's the FBI's special agent in charge for New Orleans, a man who has spent years working counterterrorism.

***

The city, he soon discovered, might just as well have been hit by a terrorist attack. "For New Orleans, the net result is the same. Clearly the tourism industry getting knocked out -- that happened. The only target of opportunity that didn't happen was sinking a ship in the river.

"What we were preparing for, relative to a terrorist attack, had been handed to us by Mother Nature."

The “net result” was the same. What about the net response?

When the Army Corps of Engineers Comes to Town

No levee is safe.

The Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that 122 levees from Rhode Island to California are at risk of failing, potentially affecting thousands of people and requiring millions of dollars in repairs.

As further proof that New Orleans is no longer part of the United States, there are no Louisiana levees on the list (pdf).

Don’t worry:

But Maj. Gen. Don Riley, director of civil works for the Corps, told reporters that levees in the New Orleans area would be adequate once the current work is completed. He said Mississippi River levees are subject to very stringent programs and none in Louisiana shows any deficiencies.

Maj. Gen. Don Riley must also be making the distinction between a levee and a floodwall (what sits on top of the levee). If he isn’t, then he must not be reading Matt McBride:

It seeming that the storm on December 21, 2006 was a bigger deal than it even seemed at the time. So far, we know:

- the level of the London Avenue canal got within five inches of the Safe Water Level, which is depth of water above which a levee breach could be imminent.

That really scares me, by the way.

California had the most nominations:

Thirty-seven levees from Chico to Santa Maria are at risk of failing because of poor maintenance - far more than in any other state, according to a list released Thursday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

What happens after your levee makes the list? The cleaner comes in.

FEMA:

SACRAMENTO - The federal government says it is reversing an earlier decision and redrawing flood maps for a fast-growing region near the state capital.

The announcement today by the Federal Emergency Management Agency affirms that the risk of a potentially catastrophic flood is greater than originally believed.

FEMA officials say the levees in Natomas are substandard and don't meet the government's criteria of 100-year flood protection.

So, when does the three-foot rule go into effect for new construction in this “fast-growing” region?

Undetermined

July 2006:

"We're talking about people that pretended that maybe they were God," Attorney General Charles C. Foti Jr. said, announcing second-degree murder allegations against Dr. Anna Pou, Lori L. Budo and Cheri Landry.

"This is not euthanasia. It's homicide," Foti said.

***

Foti said a forensic pathologist analyzed tissue samples and concluded that the four patients died from a lethal cocktail of morphine, a powerful painkiller, and midazolam hydrochloride, a central-nervous-system depressant, which has the brand name Versed. None of the patients was receiving those drugs as part of their care at the hospital, Foti said.

"The crime was that they took morphine and midazolam and injected it into the patients," Foti said.

February 2007:

In a development that appears to undermine the case against Dr. Anna Maria Pou and two nurses at Memorial Medical Center, who have been accused of murdering four elderly patients in the harrowing days after Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard said the physical evidence does not support a finding of homicide.

Instead, Minyard has classified each of the deaths as "undetermined," which means he cannot -- at this point -- conclude whether the four critically ill patients died by accident or from natural causes, suicide or homicide.

And it’s not for lack of trying:

Minyard said he reached that conclusion after reviewing the evidence and consulting with some of the top forensic experts in the country.

"We did everything we were asked to do," Minyard said. "We took toxicology and sent it up to one of the best labs in the country for them to analyze. . . . But as we stand now, with all of the consultants we have used in our investigation, the classification is undetermined."

Hail to the Recovery Chief

I hope Ed Blakely doesn’t start claiming he is the decider:

Indeed, throughout his comments, Blakely embraced his new role as New Orleans' recovery chief, one of only seven top City Hall aides who report directly to Nagin. He said he "recruited myself" to New Orleans' recovery effort, believing his experience rebuilding cities around the world made him particularly well-suited to the task and saying his expertise has been acknowledged across south Louisiana.

"FEMA has recognized me as the only authority for setting priorities for the parish of Orleans," he said.

Yes, the only authority… except for those pesky residents.

UPDATE: The Advocate story on his speech was more people-friendly than the T-P article:

"We’re going to rebuild the entire city. We’re not shrinking any footprints. We’re bringing every neighborhood back," he said.

***

"We’re going to build entire neighborhoods all at once." Whole neighborhoods will be elevated rather than “one house at a time," he added.

***

"I want to see jobs as close to people as possible," he said.

***

"I don’t want to see that same Wal-Mart look here," he said.

***

"We have to build smart, we have to build well, and we have to use the right materials," he said.

***

"The Police Department is not going to arrest itself out of this," he said, saying more job opportunities is one answer.

"We have to create employment opportunities all over town. You wouldn’t have time to commit murders if you’re working," he said.

***

He also said the city needs a training program to prepare workers for the massive rebuilding that lies ahead.

Sometimes I wish the media would just print the transcripts of speeches, press conferences, and interviews.

Every One Hurts

January 2007 – 17 Murders

01/01/07 – 1 murder

1) African-American man shot, 7:45 pm, 2300 block of Fourth Street

01/03/07 – 3 murders, 1 murder from 2006

2) African-American man shot, 3:29pm, 2900 Block of Saint Ann Street

3) African-American man shot, 3:44 p.m., at Industry and Press Streets

4) Randall Thomas shot, 6:54 p.m., 2500 block of LaSalle Street.

162) [Last Murder of 2006] Cheryl Nitzky, beaten, 6400 block of Roder Street.

01/04/07 – 2 murders

5) African-American man shot, 12:30a.m., 2119 Josephine Street

6) Helen Hill shot, 5:30a.m., 2444 North Rampart Street

01/05/07 – 1 murder

7) Jealina Brown shot, 7:20a.m., 7437 Pitt Street

01/08/07 – 1 murder

8) African-American man shot, 12:30a.m., 2530 Dublin Street

01/13/07 – 2 murders

9) Jeffery Santos shot, 6:15 a.m., 2228 Royal Street

10) Chivas Doyle shot, 11:56 p.m., 2526 Desire Street

01/14/07 – 1 murder

11) Christopher Ruth strangled, 3900 block of Annunciation

01/17/07 – 1 murder

12) Tyrone Andrew Johnson shot, 7 a.m., 2000 block of Allen Street

01/20/07 – 2 murders

13) Ronald Holmes shot, 9:40 a.m., 1324 Bienville St.

14) Man shot, 4 p.m.,431 S. Genois St.

01/26/07 – 2 murders

15) Man shot, burned, 3000 block of North Villere Street

16) Man shot, 7 p.m., 400 block of South Lopez Street

01/31/07 – 1 murder

17) African-American man shot, 2:18 a.m., 1900 Block of Delachaise Street

Template Upgrade

Fun.

I Care

Los Angeles Times writer Scott Gold speaking at Hamilton College:

Five days after the storm, the military came into the city to “take it back.” Gold was able to travel with soldiers heading from the Superdome to the city’s convention center. When two black men were slow to move out of the truck’s path, Gold heard a white soldier remark, “Just shoot ‘em, who cares?” This comment was not printed in the Times, but Gold said that perhaps it should have. It embodied not only the distrust that some soldiers had developed for the people they were there to rescue, but as the overall question arising from the disaster - who cares about this city and its people?

New Orleans is Not Unique After All

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, finishing what Katrina started:

The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 146 levees nationwide that it says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.

The deficiencies, mostly due to poor maintenance, are forcing communities from Connecticut to California to invest millions of dollars in repairs. If the levees aren't fixed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could determine that they are no longer adequate flood controls. If that happens, property owners behind the levees would have to buy flood insurance costing hundreds of dollars a year or more.

The substandard levees are being identified under a corps inspection program that has grown more aggressive since Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed levees across the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

I wonder if FEMA will require a “three feet above ground” rule for new construction in these at-risk areas.

Also, notice the revising of events after Katrina:

Thousands of residents who lost property did not have flood insurance because those levees were considered adequate; later reviews found many were not well maintained.

It should say “later reviews found many were not well designed.”

Via Gentilly Girl.

110 Billion Reasons to Bang My Head

Bush on not mentioning the Gulf Coast in the State of the Union speech:

Well, I gave a speech that I thought was necessary to give. On the other hand, I had been talking a lot about Katrina and about the fact that I worked with the Congress to get about $110 billion sent down to both Mississippi and Louisiana to help them on their reconstruction efforts.

Did he say Congress sent $110 billion dollars to the Gulf Coast for reconstruction?

Government Accountability Office, is that right (pdf)?

About $88 billion has been appropriated to 23 different federal agencies through four emergency supplemental appropriations acts.

The GAO even includes a graphic showing which agencies the $88 billion, not $110 billion, has gone to.

Of course, we here at Da Po’ Institute of First Grade Math have also been counting how much federal money has been coming to the Gulf Coast. Our report concludes similar findings to the GAO’s:

* September 2, 2005 – $10.5 billion in a disaster relief bill

* September 8, 2005 – $51.8 billion in a disaster relief bill

* December 31, 2005 – $5 billion in a spending bill (along with $24 billion diverted from already authorized funds, but not new money)

*June 15, 2006 - $19.8 billion in a spending bill

DPIFGM’s total: About $87.1 billion has been appropriated by Congress for hurricane response and recovery.

In the past, the President has counted the borrowing limit of the National Flood Insurance Program, which is currently $20.8 billion. DPIFGM doesn’t count that for previously stated reasons, previously stated thusly:

I didn’t know that paying out flood insurance claims was optional.

Even if we did count flood insurance payments, we still would not count the entire $20.8 billion. That’s just the limit. Around $16 billion has actually been “sent down to both Mississippi and Louisiana” in flood insurance payments for Katrina and Rita.

But, as I said, DPIFGM doesn’t count flood insurance payments as reconstruction money.

Comparing Home Grant Programs

Mississippi

Total Applications: 17,600
Eligible: 14,471
Closings Calculated: 11,827 (80.5% of total, 81.7% of eligible)
Paid: 10,002 (56.8% of total, 69.1% of eligible)
$ Paid: $665,404,722
Average $ Paid: $66,527

Louisiana

Total Applications: 101,657
Closings Calculated: 30,357 (29.8% of total)
Average $ Calculated: $82,581
Paid: 258
Estimated $ Paid: $21,305,898 (Average $ Calculated times Number of Paid)

If we were up to Mississippi’s speed and had paid 56.8% of our total applications (57,741), at their Average $ Paid ($66,527), we would have paid out $3,841,335,507.

For perspective, consider that in January 2006, one year ago, the first round of Community Development Block Grants was given out.

Mississippi received $5,058,185,000.

Louisiana received $6,210,000,000.

Mississippi got 86.8% more in that first round of CDBGs than it has paid out more than halfway through their housing plan. If we had paid out at the same rate at Mississippi’s lower average payment, we would have used up over half (61%) of our first allocation. In fact, assuming our average calculated payment remains consistent at $82,581, we will completely use up that first allocation about three quarters of the way through our total applications.

What is my point? Though Mississippi and Louisiana are using similar grant programs, their progress can not be similarly compared. Louisiana’s destruction was greater in scale and complexity and was grossly under-funded at the offset.

Having said that, 258 closings out of 101,657 applications is abysmal. And Mississippi should be congratulated for their able administering of their home grant program.

"Little, If Any"

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour:

"Sounds to me like Congress is getting their money's worth in Mississippi," Barbour said.

Pearlington, MS:

While the national debate over the recovery has focused on the billions expected in federal aid and insurance, those sources have so far provided little for places such as Pearlington, and charity efforts have constituted more than 80 percent of the home rebuilding completed so far, local and charity officials said.

***

The reason for the charity's dominant role in the rebuilding is that little, if any, of the $3.2 billion in federal aid for Mississippi homeowners has reached anyone here -- it is tied up for now at the state level. As for insurance, most residents of this rural community lacked any form of flood policy. People say there just hadn't been a flood in recent memory, and of those who did have coverage, most had too little.

Sometimes the big picture gets in the way of the little picture.

Sunday Bob Marley

Today is going to be a good day.



"...cause I've got a love, darling..."

If Sunday Bob Marley isn't enough for you, make your own Bob Marley station at pandora.com.

What If Firefighters Showed Up at a Fire…

…and when they doused the fire with water, it actually got bigger and burned hotter?

That would suck.

A day after City Council members were assured that New Orleans firefighters would receive long-overdue raises in their pay packages Friday, the leader of the firefighters union said many of his members actually received less money than in the past.

"It's an event of historic proportions," said Nick Felton, president of Fire Fighters Association Local 632. "It's the first time in the history of New Orleans that city employees got a pay increase and lost money."

Hey, man, don’t blame City Hall. Their abaci* work just fine:

Chief Deputy City Attorney Joseph DiRosa Jr., the city's chief negotiator in the long-running firefighter pay dispute, said that despite the union's allegations, he was "absolutely confident" that all firefighters' pay had been calculated correctly.

***

DiRosa said that because paying the state-mandated longevity raises involved a switch from city to state longevity rules, it was possible that some firefighters did wind up making less money than before, even when a 10 percent raise was included.

*Abaci or abacuses?

The Free Market Doesn’t Work in the Interest of the People

Unless, by “the people,” you mean “insurance and business officials”:

Louisiana property owners would be hurt if this state’s legislators follow the example of those in Florida and approve pro-consumer insurance reforms, insurance and business officials say.

***

The Florida bill, among other things, would order reductions in premiums and allow the state-run insurer of last resort to compete with private insurance companies.

***

One issue passed by the Florida Legislature that could prove divisive in Louisiana is called the “anti-cherry-picking” law. Florida’s bill would require insurance companies that sell auto protection in that state and property insurance in other states to also sell homeowners policies in Florida.

Good thing our representatives on the state level are looking out for our interests:

Sen. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, said she wants her legislative insurance task force to focus on bills most likely to pass. That means reforms to which the insurance industry agrees.

The insurance industry is much too powerful in Louisiana for lawmakers to attempt as strong a pro-consumer angle as Florida, she said.

***

“I’m sure somebody will file that piece of legislation here,” Quinn said. “That’s highly controversial and something that the industry would fight against vehemently.”

My democracy, my democracy, why hast thou forsaken me?

The Mayor's Nicknames

He's got quite a few. I would like to add "Stretch":

"We're 18 months into this thing. I'm tired of complaining and bellyaching," Nagin said Wednesday. "We're going to take whatever nickels we have, whatever pennies we have, whatever dollars we have, and we're going to stretch it, and we're going to make this recovery work."

C. Ray.

C. Ray stretch.

Stretch, Ray, stretch.

The new recovery plan: Stretch. That way you can stay in the same place and get everything you want... as long as it's within reach.

Not Like We Need More Evidence

But our criminal justice system does not keep our residents safe.

Example #1, from the T-P today:

Police have booked a man in the Jan. 5 shooting death of a woman in the Carrollton area on Pitt Street, New Orleans police said Wednesday.

Sterling Pipkins, 22, of New Orleans, who already was in jail, was rebooked with second-degree murder in the death of Jealina Brown, also of New Orleans, in her home in the 7400 block of Pitt Street.

***

Pipkins was convicted in July 2002 of attempted murder of New Orleans police Capt. Clarence Hebert, who has since recovered and is currently the commander of the Mounted Division.

It is not known when Pipkins was released from prison on that charge.

I don’t know the specifics of the case. But I find it hard to believe that a man *convicted* of attempted murder of a police officer in 2002 is out of prison, free to kill a resident in 2007.

Example #2:

Garelle Smith, 25, sits in jail without bond after his arrest last week at the St. Bernard public housing complex, where police nabbed him, at first, for tearing down part of the fence that the Housing Authority of New Orleans installed around the sprawling complex after closing it down in the aftermath of Katrina.

***

Police booked him with the first-degree murder of Mandell Duplessis, 24, who was gunned down Aug. 4 outside a FEMA trailer in Gentilly after surprising a small band of armed robbers who had taken the trailer's residents hostage in search of cash and narcotics.

It is a familiar drill for Smith, who has escaped two previous murder charges in Orleans Parish, including the killing of local rapper Soulja Slim, born James Tapp, on Nov. 26, 2003.

***

At the same time prosecutors gave up trying to link him to Soulja Slim's killing, Smith sat in jail booked in another murder, that of Spencer Smith Jr., 28, a recording artist known as Funk who died while seated in a pickup truck on St. Bernard Avenue -- right in front of the public housing complex -- where he was riddled with bullets. That was on Dec. 11, 2003, not even a month after Soulja Slim was slain in Gentilly.

Spencer Smith was the son of New Orleans police officer Spencer Smith Sr. and is not related to Garelle Smith.

Once again, I don’t know the specifics of these cases. However, while it is possible to be arrested wrongly for murder three times, I don’t think it is likely. Note that Garelle Smith was accused of murdering a police officer’s son.

I can’t say whether these men are guilty of the crimes they are accused of. Normally, I would say, “Let the courts decide.” But, I am not confident that the courts will get a chance to decide, or that their decision will be carried out. Just look at the evidence.

Words That Hurt

I teach my son that words only have the power that we give them. They are symbols. Words are not good or bad. What they symbolize can be good or bad… or harmful. But the words themselves can’t hurt you.

There are a few words that I don’t *want* my child to say, but I don’t really mind if he says them, like curse words. Lil po’ boy has blurted out a few “shits” and “fucks” before. However, I can’t really scold him because I have blurted out quite a few “shits” and “fucks” in my lifetime (particularly during Saints games). Since I can not tell my son *not* to do something I do all the time, I tell him those are “daddy words,” as in words we only say around daddy.

But there are words that I don’t want my son to ever to use. If he comes to me one day and asks about them, I will tell him as I told him before: Words only have the power we give them. And, though you and I don’t give power to these words, many people do.

One of those words is the word “nigger.” I don’t use it. None of my friends do. The only time I utter it is when I am talking about the word itself, as in this case. As I am a white man, no one has ever used it to harm me. But, I know in the past it has been used many times to hurt other people, including my friends, and I recognize that to many people, it is a powerful word. I can not think of any good that can come from using it, other than in academic discussions, so I don’t use it.

Enter Chicago:

With history being made--the Bears' Lovie Smith and Colts' Tony Dungy becoming the first African-American head coaches to lead their teams into the Super Bowl--it's tempting for Americans to congratulate ourselves on how far we've come.

But all it took was one stupid Chicago Bears fan with the N-word blurting from his lips to remind New Orleans TV reporter Glynn Boyd, and the rest of us, how far we've got to go.

The author lets Boyd tell the story himself:

"There were only a few minutes left in Sunday's game, and some Saints fan told me that a Chicago fan asked them about their home in New Orleans during the flood, and she said it had 10 feet of water, and the Bears fans started screaming, saying, `I wish you'd drowned in it!' And, `We'll finish what Hurricane Katrina started!' That kind of stuff.

"So I set up to do an interview with the Saints fan," Boyd said. "That's when the two Bears fans came up, including the one who yelled at her. There was a big guy, about 6 foot 7, and there was his buddy, a little guy, who was doing all the talking."

It's always the little guy, right?

"Yeah," Boyd said. "So as we're setting up to do the interview, the shorter Bears fan comes up, screaming, `Katrina! Katrina!' He must've been drunk. I turned and said, `Hey, I'm trying to work here.' And that's when he pushes me and says it. He says the N-word. He dropped it right on me.

"He pushes me and I push back, there wasn't any tape, but the guys in the [TV control] booth could see it. You could say there was some pushing going on. He kept saying it, ugly, loud, the N-word. Yelling it."

Don’t get too mad, though. What goes around, comes around, and sometimes it comes around in the form of a fist:

"There wasn't any [video] tape, but I think somebody might have thrown a left hook," Boyd said.

A good one, with some hip torque behind it?

"Perhaps. It might have been a guy from New Orleans that threw it, and if he did throw it, not that I'm saying he did, but if he did, it might have felt good to do so, after he'd been pushed and called that word over and over. If he did, of course, I'd have to assume he felt some satisfaction. I'm almost certain of it. But that's not the issue. The behavior of that fan is the issue."

I am not a violent man. But if that left hook was thrown by a guy from New Orleans, and I am not saying it was, I would also feel some satisfaction.

All people from Chicago are not like this guy. I guess. But the stories I hear and read about abusive Bears fans worry me. They seem to symbolize not hatred for our team and its fans for being their opponent, but hatred for our team and its fans for existing. The Chicago fans who were rude were not just saying “Go back to New Orleans,” they were saying “Go back to New Orleans AND DROWN.” That’s not cool.

I share Jeffrey’s thoughts on this as I consider how much America really wants to help her brothers and sisters in New Orleans. I did not expect President Bush to mention New Orleans in his SOTU address, but it still scares me that the State of the Union is considered strong when the future of New Orleans is so unclear.

The author of this article works for the Chicago Tribune. I applaud him for not overlooking this ugly episode and addressing the ungracious fans even though they were his own people. However, I wonder if he realizes how he contributed to the problem, for he is none other than John “We are not your sponge” Kass.

He offers an explanation for the Bears fans’ animosity:

Bears fans were becoming nauseated by the national media hype that didn't have anything to do with football, the hype suggesting that because of the hurricane's devastation, a Saints victory was called for. I wrote about that on Sunday, that Chicago isn't New Orleans' sponge, and received hundreds of critical letters from Saints fans, including a few ugly ones on the level of Boyd's Bears fan. But it wasn't the people of New Orleans whom Bears fans were fed up with. We're sorry about the flood. It was the national story line that peeved us.

First of all, what he wrote last Sunday deserved a response similar to “Boyd's Bears fan.” It was ugly. He wasn’t talking about football, even though he claimed to be. He even refered to the Civil War. What does that have to do with football?

Second, if the Bears fans were becoming nauseated by the media hype focused on Katrina and not on their big game, they must realize something. Katrina was, is, and will continue to be a bigger story than any Bears football game. Their ignorance of that fact or reluctance to accept it is part of our problem down here.

Simply because they don’t give power to these words doesn’t mean that the words can not hurt others. I guess I will have to give them the same speech I gave my six-year-old.

Chef Menteur Landfill Deal Audited

Remember that deal?

The new landfill, to a degree, grew out of the Gentilly settlement. As operations were scaled back there, Waste Management sought and received the conditional-use permit it needed for the new landfill from City Hall, courtesy of Mayor Ray Nagin, who in February invoked emergency powers after Katrina to waive the city's comprehensive zoning ordinance. The same day, Waste Management pledged to give 22 percent of the revenue it receives from the new facility to the cash-strapped city.

Mayor Nagin used his emergency powers to fast track a landfill in New Orleans East for Waste Management, who conveniently pledged to “donate” 22 percent of the profit to the city. Sounds sketchy?

The Department of Homeland Security, the department that oversees FEMA, thinks so and has audited the deal.

The audit says the city was double-dipping into federal funds. FEMA was paying for the debris removal. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would transport the debris to the Chef Menteur Landfill and would pay Waste Management to deal with it. FEMA would reimburse the USACE with federal funds. Essentially, federal funds were going into Waste Management’s pockets, which is one form of federal assistance. The city didn’t have to pay for any of the debris removal process. That is the first dip.

Then Waste Management then took 22 percent of the money the federal government paid the company and set it aside to give back to the city as a “donation.” That’s the second dip. It was like the federal government was paying the city 100 percent for debris removal at the Chef Menteur landfill plus 22 percent lagniappe. I am sure the federal government would have been much happier if the city had negotiated with WM to lower the dumping fee 22 percent, rather than kicking 22 percent of the federal funds back to the state.

Which is exactly what the auditor is asking for (pdf):

FEMA did not require the City to pay for debris removal necessitated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but the City should not profit from those debris removal operations, especially when the profit (donations) appears to be at the federal government's expense. Therefore, in substance, the donations should be treated as a credit and deducted from the City's final claim for other disaster costs, effectively to reduce FEMA’s costs for the City's debris removal.

In total, the auditor is recommending $860,000 be deducted from further federal funds headed to the state.

There’s more:

The landfill operator's tipping fee for Chef Menteur was $5.00 per cubic yard, which is significantly higher than the $3.50 tipping fee at the nearby Gentilly and the $2.75 tipping fee at Highway 90. Under the donation agreement, the landfill operator is to pay the City $1.10 of the $5.00 tipping fee, which reduces his net revenue fiom the tipping fee to $3.90, an amount closer to the Gentilly tipping fee.

WM inflated its prices to receive a profit comparable to nearby landfills plus the money it would “donate” to the city. It basically added the city’s 22 percent to its normal price. That sounds more like a tax than a donation.

With the price inflation, this deal is bordering on an illegal use of federal funds. It’s a good thing the landfill’s existence did not rely on this agreement of a “donation” to the city.

Uh oh.

However, the donation agreement also says that the landfill operator will submit its calculation of the 22 percent of landfill revenues "to the City along with payment and will give the City the opportunity to validate the calculation. The Donation shall become effective upon, and continue so long as, [the landfill operator's] disposal operations continue at the landfill."

Common sense tells us that the beneficiary of a voluntary donation would not normally require the donor to (1) sign a notarized agreement, (2) submit calculation of donated amounts to the beneficiary for validation, or (3) continue donations so long as the donor operated a business that required the beneficiary's authorization. These requirements provide convincing evidence that the landfill operator's "donation" of 22 percent of gross revenues was contingent on the City's approval to operate the landfill.

The Chef Menteur landfill was a bad idea ecologically and now we are seeing that it was just a bad idea.

We’ve been C-Rayed again.

Insurance Companies Refuse to Insure against Risk

Not even wealthy New Englanders safe:

During the nine years she's lived in her historic sea captain's house on Cape Cod, Mass., Paula Aschettino never filed a claim against her homeowner's insurance policy. But last year she received a letter from her insurer, Hingham Mutual Group, canceling coverage on her nine-room, $600,000 oceanfront home, which has withstood its share of hurricanes since 1840. She and her husband, Michael, scrambled to find other insurance but were repeatedly denied. "They just said we are in a high-risk area," she says.

***

Allstate Insurance recently announced it wouldn't take new homeowner policies in New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware—or the five boroughs of New York City. The company also won't renew 30,000 of more than 600,000 policies it carries in and around New York City. A host of other firms are refusing to insure properties along the Atlantic coast from Maine to the Carolinas.

Now, the greatest statement ever by a spokesperson for an insurance company, which exists for the purpose of insuring against the various things that could go wrong in life, i.e. “risk”:

"We believe it would be bad business to continue to add to our risk."

I think someone is in the wrong business.

Is That What It's Like?

Because, I can't take this. I didn't know what it would be like for a football team I root for to actually play in the NFC Championship game.

Now that I know what it's like, I am almost glad the Saints didn't win. Watching them in the Superbowl would have killed me.

That period right after Reggie's run and right before Drew's safety was crazy. I almost didn't make it.

Seriously, going from 3-13 to the NFC Championship game is too much, especially when we've had plenty of 3-13-like seasons and zero NFC-Championship-game-like seasons. It's like going from 0 to 1,000 mph in one second. The human body can't take those kinds of G-forces (I presume).

Generally, after a Saints season ends, I feel like something is missing, like something was left incomplete. Not this year.

I look foward to a rematch in the NFC Championship game next year. Only, let's do it indoors this time.

Volare?

Not today.

Who Dat.

Sunday Bob Marley

And Peter Tosh.



Stop that train. Sometimes you have to go somewhere to get somewhere.

For John Kass Is an Honorable Man

***WARNING: The following post is PURE RANT, and very long and wordy. For the second time in less than a week, an opinion piece has gotten the better of my better self. If you continue, consider yourself warned. If you do not continue, at least read the source of my ire and make your own conclusions.***

William Shakespeare wrote a line you may have heard before:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune wrote a line you are most likely hearing for the first time today:

People of New Orleans, lend me your ears.

Both men hoped for the line to ignite a rhetorical flourish meant to turn the tide of public opinion around, to make roundly vilified a subject who before was wholly venerated. By the time the unbiased reader finishes Kass’ article “Love the city, mourn the football team,” he or she will conclude that the author from Chicago has not the rhetorical mastery of a Marc Anthony, the character who uttered the famous speech from which Kass’ inspiration is drawn, nor the writing genius of a Shakespeare.

In Marc Antony’s speech in “Julius Caesar,” Shakespeare follows his famous first line with an adept display of irony:

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

It is irony, because Antony’s intent is exactly the opposite. He shall praise Caesar in such a way that, by the end of his speech, the mob he was addressing has turned their anger away from Caesar towards Brutus, who just before the speech they were willing to crown the next Caesar.

Kass’ first-line/second-line combination doesn’t have quite the same punch:

People of New Orleans, lend me your ears.

We are not your sponge.

It’s all downhill from there.

A football is an oval hunk of leather. And large, fast and supremely violent men catch it and run with it as others try to smash them to the ground.

But a sponge is porous and soft, often pink, or yellow, belonging in a sink or the tub. There is no violence in a sponge. A sponge is designed to sop up unwanted water.

And New Orleans, please understand this: We like you guys. But we're not your sponge.

Get it?

Um, no. I don’t get it. Please give me more examples.

Chicago is not your paper towel, either, or your Shop-Vac or your spaghetti mop or your squeegee.

So no matter what happens Sunday in the NFC championship game between the Bears and the Saints, it has nothing to do with that flood of yours.

We're not sopping up your water.

Oh, wait. Now I get it. The honorable Mr. Kass thinks we New Orleanians beleive that beating the Chicago Bears will finally rid us of that flood of ours.

Do you think Mr. Kass knows that our streets are no longer flooded and that, since our pumps kicked in September of ’05 and helped finish the Army Corps of Engineers’ job, we haven’t needed a sponge, paper towel, Shop-Vac, spaghetti mop, or squeegee to sop up Katrina’s waters?

Or do you think he is a little confused by the endless use of “file video” on CNN showing the streets of New Orleans underwater? That’s okay. I can see how an honorable man can overlook this small fact.

What follows is, I think, Mr. Kass’ point:

This is football.

Yes, it is. And I, for one, am glad that Mr. Kass pointed that out to us New Orleanians. I am now satisfied that I leant my ear.

This is football, where what happens off the field never affects play on the field.

This is football, where motivation acquired before a game never helps during a game.

This is football, where a victory is just one more check in the win column.

This is football. It is just a game.

What about the game?

"That's all anyone wants to talk about, Hurricane Katrina and the flood and how if the Saints win this game, it'll help New Orleans," said my friend Dave Kaplan, the WGN-AM sports talk show host who has been doing interviews with his counterparts in other cities about Sunday's game.

"It's Katrina this and Katrina that," Kaplan said, shrugging.

It makes me sick, I said.

"Me too," Kaplan said, who has issues with New Orleans that I'll reveal later. "What does Katrina have to do with football?"

Nothing.

Mr. Kass’ honorable friend is amazed how his counterparts from other cities talk about Katrina when addressing Sunday’s game. Don’t they know this is football? Or maybe they know something the honorable men of Chicago don’t know, something we know down here in New Orleans. It’s still Katrina this and Katrina that.

Mr. Kass and his friend should come down and visit. Go for a ride. I am sure it will make him sick. It doesn’t even have to be in the flooded areas, although that would give them the best perspective. They can simply drive down St. Charles and count the many traffic lights that are either blinking or completely out with temporary stop signs in use, while noting the absence of the picturesque streetcar. Sure, that’s minor in comparison to a flooded out neighborhood. But it’s still Katrina this and Katrina that.

Eh, who needs perspective. This is football.

All of us felt terrible about Katrina and the flood. Even Kaplan. And we hold no animosity for a great city that has endured so much.

What drives us crazy is the blabbermouth national media, projecting their own desires in their stories, putting the Saints on the side of the angels, and the Bears on the side of Katrina. If they were political writers, they'd be card carrying Obamamaniacs.

Even our future president, Sen. Barack Obama, has the guts to publicly say he wants the Bears to whip Saint behind on Sunday.

This manipulation of his audience is a little more obvious than that of Marc Antony’s in “Julius Caesar.” It is a worthy cause to attempt to portray your side in a contest as the victims of the big bad media. It could provide some of that off-the-field-motivation that football is supposedly not about.

However, when the media extols the virtues of a team like the Saints, it is not, therefore, condemning as demonic the Saints' opponents. Two good and virtuous teams can play each other in the NFL. This is, after all, the number one seeded team versus the number two seeded team in the NFC - the two best teams. The Saints just have more story lines for the media to pursue.

But don’t feel hurt, honorable men. This is football.

"More Than Football," cooed Sports Illustrated on its cover last week. "Drew Brees and the Saints lift the city of New Orleans to higher ground."

Oh, I get it. If the Bears lose, New Orleans will rise above the place where it now sits, below sea level, where some ridiculous Frenchman put it, ignoring the warnings of his engineers.

The novelty of this article is wearing out. Yes, parts of New Orleans are below sea level. But 80 percent of New Orleans did not flood because parts of the city are below sea level, nor due to the error of a “ridiculous Frenchman.” New Orleans flooded because of a “design failure” by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And the honorable men of Chicago should be careful when disparaging the French, for none other than the Father of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, was half French. And how did Point Du Sable get to Illinois? Through connections he made at the Port of New Orleans, of course!

Back to the article:

It ends Sunday, unless the unthinkable happens and the Bears lose. Then Indianapolis or New England can be cast as the Great Satan. Or is that The Great Sponge?

Again with the sponge?

The next part is has nothing to do with anything. I am surprised it got past the editors.

Finally, the honorable Mr. Kass tells us why his honorable friend Mr. Kaplan has “issues” with New Orleans:

Which brings me back to Kaplan and his strained relationship with New Orleans, which started when he was engaged to a woman from that town.

"I was staying overnight at their place, and got up late to hit the fridge for some food, and here comes my almost future mother-in-law. She hates me. And she's silent. She doesn't say a word.

"So I figure, the heck with this, I approach her and say, `I'm a likable guy. I get along with just about everybody. What's your problem with me? Is it because I'm Jewish?

"She said `No, it's because you're taking my daughter away, you Yankee!'

"I finally had enough of her, and I tell her, `That's right. I'm a Yankee, and guess what? We kicked your butts 150 years ago and we could do it again.'

"And the next morning, I broke up with my fiance and left and that was it," Kaplan said, with a big smile.

We kicked their butts 150 years ago. And Katrina or no Katrina, the Bears will kick some again on Sunday.

I gar-on-tee.

The honorable Mr. Kaplan sure sounds like the likeable guy he professes to be. It’s a darn shame he didn’t marry that New Orleanian and stick around.

The Civil War reference is revealing. If anyone needs more evidence of how the rest of America considers and treats New Orleans like another country or some other part of the world, look no further than a couple of honorable Chicagoans agreeing with “We kicked your butts 150 years ago and we could do it again.” I can’t wait to see that sign in the crowd on Sunday: “The North Shall Kick Your Butts Again!”

The title of this article, “Love the city, mourn the football team,” recalls the seminal moment of Marc Antony’s speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral when he effectively turns his audience's negative opinions against Caesar to negative opinions against Caesar’s (and Marc Antony’s) enemy Brutus:

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

If John Kass’ intention was to turn the public’s positive opinion of the Saints to a positive opinion of the Bears, he has failed in every way possible. He ridiculed the personal and shared tragedy of so many New Orleanians (We are not your sponge.), minimized the importance of this game to the people of New Orleans ("What does Katrina have to do with football?" Nothing.), insulted the city in general implying its residents are stupid for living there (Oh, I get it. If the Bears lose, New Orleans will rise above the place where it now sits, below sea level, where some ridiculous Frenchman put it, ignoring the warnings of his engineers.), and glorified a deadly and humiliating period of our history that the South is still recovering from and that Chicago greatly benefited from (“We kicked your butts 150 years ago and we could do it again.”).

Shakespeare, he is not.

Win or lose, the Saints have already won the equivalent of the Super Bowl for New Orleans. They will receive a hero’s welcome no matter what the outcome of Sunday’s game.

This, honorable Mr. Kass, is football.

Will There Be a Memorial for This Man?

By my count, he is the 13th human being murdered in New Orleans in 2007:

A New Orleans man was found dead, apparently from a single gunshot wound, inside a vacant apartment in the Iberville public housing development Saturday morning, the New Orleans Police Department reported.

***

Police officers found narcotics at the scene but couldn’t say if they were connected to the murder, [department spokeswoman Sabrina] Richardson said. Authorities had no witnesses or suspects, she said.

No witnesses. Could surveillance cameras in the projects help?

Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday received a response from federal recovery coordinator Donald Powell about his request for money for surveillance cameras, but so far the assistance is limited to cameras at public housing developments.

***

But Nagin spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said that although the city is appreciative of money for such cameras, the mayor is also seeking about $6 million from the federal government that could be used to put up 500 cameras throughout the city.

Nagin is seeking the money for extra cameras, but apparently not applying for it:

Yet as of now Powell's office has only received a camera request related to the public housing sites, [Powell spokeswoman Susan] Aspey said.

I’m seeing a trend here:

Powell's letter also addressed another Nagin concern: when the flooded New Orleans Police Department headquarters would be reopened. FEMA money totaling $2.1 million has already started flowing for the project and construction work will allow the police to move back into the second through the fifth floors of the building by May, Powell wrote. But in the letter Powell expressed concern that the city had not completed the necessary paperwork to get an additional $864,410 for work on the first floor.

Hmmm… The city refutes this one, and says the federal government is doing that thing they do with federal funds, overestimating how much is coming to the city and misrepresenting what it is for:

Cynthia Sylvain-Lear, Nagin's deputy chief administrative officer, countered that her office completed the paperwork on Dec. 20.

***

Sylvain-Lear said that although the Powell letter says that $195 million has been obligated for criminal justice in New Orleans, the city itself gets only $98 million of that. So far, the city has received only $71 million, much of which covered emergency expenses, such as police overtime, from right after Hurricane Katrina, she said.

Who to believe? Meanwhile, the NOPD headquarters is some trailers on Lafitte near Bayou St. John.

On the flip side, I am happy to report that one agency is starting to receive citizen tips on who the bad guys are:

Federal and state law enforcement agents, acting on a citizen's tip, found an elaborate marijuana-growing operation on one side of a shot-gun double, and busted two men living on the other side, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.

About 384 marijuana plants, along with chemicals, lighting and ventilation, were discovered during a court-ordered search by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Louisiana State Police troopers, Letten said Friday.

$2 million in marijuana plants in one half of a shotgun double. The growers lived in the other.

The flip side, indeed.

What’s in that Brownie?

Whatever it is, it makes you talk a lot:

Some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, [Michael] Brown told a group of graduate students at a lecture on politics and emergency management at Metropolitan College of New York.

***

"Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking 'We had to federalize Louisiana because she's a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it," he said.

Honestly, when I read “certain people” my antennae went up. I would love to know who these “certain people” were.

However, Brownie FM wasn’t transmitting:

Brown declined to say who in the White House had argued for only taking control of Louisiana, but said that he'd later learned of the situation through Blanco's office and from other officials on the federal level.

How can we believe his accusations if he can’t produce who said it? Plus, he says he heard about the statements secondhand and after the event.

I assume he’s being paid for these speaking engagements and that’s his motivation to keep on talking. But, if he also wants to clear his name, he needs to start providing evidence for his accusations. Simply saying other people screwed up too doesn’t make up for his screw ups.

Previously on Brownie FM:

The Legend of Michael Brown – where he says of Blanco and Nagin, “I felt like strangling them both” and scolds the people of New Orleans with “The government cannot save you.”

Why Is Michael Brown Still Talking? – where he solemnly relives the height of his infamy revealing how he should have responded after the President gave him a premature performance evaluation, “You just said I was doing a heck of a job, when I know things are going to heck in a handbasket.”

UPDATE: anonymous digs up a relevant article in the comments.

The Three Stooges of the Recovery

The state government:

Federal money that Mayor Ray Nagin says New Orleans must have in order to recover is available, state officials said Thursday.

But to get it, Nagin must ask for it, said Col. Jeff Smith, director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security.

“We don’t read minds down here,” Smith said. “They have to apply for it.”

The city government:

Cynthia Sylvain-Lear, deputy chief administrative officer for New Orleans, said Thursday the city is aggressively seeking the money, but it has encountered problems with both FEMA and the state.

Sylvain-Lear said more than 300 city buildings were destroyed or damaged in the hurricane; officials have estimated that will cost about $400 million to repair. “Some of our early estimates were wrong and we’re trying to revise those with FEMA,” she said. “In some cases FEMA has vastly underestimated the costs.”

At the same time, she said, paperwork the city has sent to the state has been misplaced or lost.

The federal government:

Simpson also said FEMA was working to remove any bottlenecks.

“We’ve been very aggressive in our efforts to fix any chokepoints,” he said. “In August, the average stay in the million-dollar queue was 52 days. As of yesterday, we had that down to 8.7 days.”

The million-dollar queue is where all applications for more than $1 million are processed.

The first one hits the second one in the head with a wrench, the second one turns around and twists the third one’s nose, and the third one goes over to the first one and pokes him in the eye.

Meanwhile, New Orleans is left doing the Curly Shuffle. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Young Felaz Forever

We already had a 15-year-old accused attempted murderer. Now we have a 15-year-old murder victim:

In a separate incident, the coroner's office released the identity of a 15-year-old murder victim.

Hilary Campbell of Boutte was found shot many times in the head and chest on Jan. 3 in the afternoon in a remote grassy area near Industry and Press streets, Gagliano said.

Campbell's identity came to light when someone recognized descriptions of Campbell's tattoos and told relatives the tattoos belonged Campbell, Gagliano said. He said the tattoos, "Young" and "Felaz," stood for Young Fellows.

If you get “young felaz” tattooed on your body, you don’t plan on getting old.

This one hurts, too. It’s got to hurt. If it doesn’t, it needs to start hurting.

Given Campbell’s tattoos, that fact that he was a runaway, and the manner in which he was killed, one might think he was up to no good and that’s why he was shot. Even if that were true, and I don’t know if it is, we as a society failed him long before he was murdered. More than one of us allowed him to start down his path towards being young forever.

That’s what hurts.

And the "separate incident" was our 11th murder of the year.

UPDATE: Another murder. WWL says it is number 11, but I count 12 total.

I Don't Understand Insurance

Insurance companies paid out 85% less in 2006 than in 2005:

The insurance industry paid out some $8.8 billion in claims in the United States in 2006 -- a sharp drop from hurricane-plagued 2005, the ISO's Property Claim Services unit reported Tuesday.

***

In 2005, 24 events were classified as catastrophes but they included Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita and resulted in insured losses of a record $61.9 billion, the company said.

Even in 2005, with all those hurricanes, the insurance industry profited, as seen in this April article in the LA Times:

The companies that provide Americans with their homeowners and auto insurance made a record $44.8-billion profit last year even after accounting for the claims of policyholders wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and the other big storms of 2005, according to the firms' filings with state regulators.

***

In fact, the property casualty insurance industry, which provides homeowners and auto coverage, made a considerable sum despite paying tens of billions of dollars to policyholders as a result of Katrina, which is widely described as the largest insured disaster in U.S. history, and a string of other storms.

Besides boosting profits, the industry raised its surplus by more than 7% to nearly $427 billion, according to an analysis of company filings by the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, which represents regulators from the 50 states. The surplus is intended to provide a financial cushion in times of high claims.

This year saw more catastrophes, but less expensive ones:

Property Claim Services, which is based in Jersey City, N.J., said there were 33 catastrophic events last year, the highest frequency since 37 in 1998. Insurers received some 2,272,000 claims for damages, it said.

Interestingly enough, for all the grief we are given for living here, we weren’t in the ISO’s top five for 2006:

State - Loss ($)
Indiana - $1.5 billion
Missouri - $878 million
Tennessee - $873 million
Texas - $688 million
Kansas - $601 million

So, insurance companies profit when they pay out record claims, not to mention adding to their surplus (a true rainy day fund). Yet, in a year with fewer claims, all of our insurance goes up, presumably adding even more to their profit and surplus.

Huh?