A small group of protesters gathered in the freezing cold today in front of the Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital demanding it be reopened. They also voiced concerns about the massive VA-LSU project that will demolish 70 blocks of lower Mid-City, ostensibly to replace Charity and the old VA hospitals. Also a related indymedia article on mass land acquisition in the footprint by a wealthy New Yorker: Land Acquisitions in Mid City Raise Questions by A. Caritas.
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Katie Hunter-Lowrey, a New Orleans resident and a former employee of the gay rights advocacy group Mass Equality, talks about her trip to California before the historic November 2008 election to fight the passing of Proposition 8, which bans equal marriage for gay couples.
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City officials and LSU still working to pull together controversial LSU hospital plan. Hundreds of Mid-City homes will be demolished from area, and Big Charity Hospital will still be closed.
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Albert Woodfox, who has spent 37 years in prison at Angola Penitentiary, must be released on bail, according to a ruling issued today by United States District Judge James Brady. On September 25th, Judge Brady overturned Woodfox's conviction for the 1972 murder of prison guard Brent Miller. Though the State has announced its intention to appeal that decision, until such an appeal is successful, according to today's ruling, there is no conviction on which to hold Woodfox. Read more...
Time is of the essence on Charity Hospital and the surrounding neighborhood. Decisions may be made as early as this Friday that will decide the fate of the VA and the neighborhood. Read more...
New Orleans is ringing with the sounds of celebration. Having endured the brunt and brutality of the Bush administration's neoliberal economic agenda and neoconservative political agenda more heavily than any other community in the United States, the city has begun a party like only this town knows how to throw. The sounds of ship horns along the Mississippi River blasting in jubilation mix with cars honking along the main avenues. Cheers of hooray resonate across the town from victory parties at bars and crowded households.
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More than a dozen people marched in the streets of New Orleans Sunday evening with a “Starbucks Stop Your Union Busting Now!” banner in solidarity with Starbucks baristas across the nation. At the end of the action, police unlawfully arrested one protester for allegedly "interfering" with officers who were detaining a fellow demonstrator without cause. After twenty four hours and bail payment, the arrestee was finally released.
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N.O. Council member Stacy head officiated the DDD meeting and was praised as a consensus builder by developers and preservationists alike for providing leadership toward a solution that addressed the concerns of both parties. Head, well known for her leadership in the demolition of public housing touted the DDD plan as one that put an “academic background and expert opinion around the issue,” and provides various stakeholders with influence over the final reports recommendations. This was in stark contrast with her leadership during the debate over the future of public housing when she eschewed attempts to forge common ground between those who sought homes for residents of the “big four” developments, and those who advocated immediately tearing down the developments: Head was adamantly for demolition and entertained zero discussion with public housing residents and their allies about how to provide immediate affordable housing opportunities for working class New Orleanians.
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The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish, released in mid-August, received its first hearing for public comment on Thursday September 18, 2008. From more than 30 public comments, there were no unconditional supporters of
the plan and several people mentioned that there needed to be more time
for public comment on such a large and technical document that will
have a tremendous impact on this city well into the future. A petition is underway. See Indymedia's feature on the petition.Click on the title of this feature for the first audio installment. The second installmentThe third and final installment
In response to a federal judge's decision overturning the conviction of Albert Woodfox, one of the two 'Angola 3' members who remain in prison, lawyers for the men called on the State Attorney General's office to drop any further charges and release the men immediately.
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Read and Sign the Petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/SOSNOLA-ExtendReviewPeriod To see the petition in its entirety, click the "letter" link underneath the picture. Comments Supporting an Extended Public Review in Full Article photo courtesy of Karen Apricot
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Hurricane Gustav killed 18 people in Louisiana and displaced 1.9 million. Over 800,000 homes are without electricity. In Haiti, Gustav killed 77 with another 8 missing and damaged nearly 15,000 homes. Tropical storm Hanna, which closely followed Gustav, killed at least another 60 people. Tens of thousands of people have sought safety on rooftops and temporary shelters.
As this hurricane fell at the end of August and the beginning of September, many returning evacuees are faced with mounting bills from landlords and utility companies after footing the cost of at least 4 days of evacuation. The financial hardship for many is unbearable. Attached is a drafted tenants agreement that tenants can present to their landlords to strike agreements to defer rent payment for a reasonable amount of time.
Despite the rosy media reports of light damage from Hurricane Gustav, several of southern Lousiana’s coastal Indigenous communities are reeling from a direct hit by Hurricane Gustav’s 115mph winds and large storm surge. Their communities lie in shambles. The communities of lower Pointe-au-Chien, home of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT), and the Isle de Jean Charles (“The Island”) Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Confederation of Muskogees (BCCM) are still trying to assess the severe damage and what it will take to rebuild after Gustav’s devastating winds and storm-surge flooded homes, knocked buildings off their foundations, and decimated the primary source of income in the early season commercial shrimp harvest. The Island is still inaccessible due to prevailing flood waters. ( the most recent update from community leaders follows this action alert)
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Your assistance is urgently needed to help the low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina.
About two hundred residences in the Braithwaite subdivision along Highway 39 at the St. Bernard/Plaquemines Parish boundary southeast of New Orleans were threatened with flooding during the afternoon of Monday, September 1, 2008 as hurricane Gustav came ashore in southern Louisiana. The towns of Braithwaite and Port Nickel were ordered to evacuate. The status of this threat may have subsided somewhat tonight as the Army Corps of Engineers opened gates on the Caernarvon Mississippi River Diversion, thus lowering stress on the overtopped levee. Water in the Mississippi River is currently lower than the levels in the canals. (this article continues to clarify the Braithwaite situation and history)
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AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to Jeremy Scahill, who covered, of course, Hurricane Katrina in the aftermath, Democracy Now! correspondent, wrote Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Jeremy, what’s happening today? JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, last Friday, Blackwater sent out an email. This, of course, is the famous mercenary company that not only has operated in Iraq and Afghanistan, but was actually in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and beyond, in 2005 made $70 million in federal money just off of its Hurricane Katrina contracts. Last Friday, Blackwater sent out an email to its network of independent contractors. The company boasts of having some 20,000-plus individuals that it can call out at a moment’s notice. And the contract was looking for personnel that would be interested in deploying in, what the email said, areas affected by Hurricane Gustav.
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In the blazing midday sun, hot and thirsty little children walk around bags of diapers and soft suitcases piled outside a locked community center in the Lower Ninth Ward.
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Immigrant workers receive safe evacuation assurances from Department of Homeland Security
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Prisoners and Families of New Orleans needs your help immediately!* If you haven't heard already Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans and is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane, the same as Hurricane Katrina. There will possibly be a mandate for all people (outside of prisons and jails) of New Orleans to evacuate starting tomorrow August 29th, the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It is predicted that hurricane Gustav will pose great flooding potential regardless of its category rating, the levee that broke by elected official's decisions during Hurricane Katrina has not been fixed to it's potential, or replaced. The over crowding Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, holds 2, 500 prisoners (this count is not certain, due to lack of information given to the public.) Although not official, we have information that the Prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison will be evacuating to Angola Prison and Hunt Prison in the next coming days and are also prisons that can be affected by Hurricane Gustav due to overcrowding. During Hurricane Katrina there were prisoners able to evacuate and others who remained locked in their cells with a minimal chance of survival. Prisoners were left in flooded cells, with no food, and had minimal ventilation, to say the least. Family members, of prisoners who were held at Orleans Parish Prison, are still in the fight to locate their loved ones who had been evacuated to other prisons during Katrina. Due to the flooding, lack of organization and care from New Orleans Department of Corrections and elected officials, prisoner's records were also missing. As a result, prisoner's constitutional rights have been violated.
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Workers from the Wildlife Rehab and Education Agency out of Houston set up three soapy tubs. First cleaned was a juvenile Laughing Gull. Sharon Schmalz, Wildlife Rehabilitator and Oiled Wildlife Responder (she's been doing this for 25 years), said they will know if the scrubbing is successful, because when the bird is rinsed, water will bead off of the feathers. After the scrubbing, while being rinsed, Sharon pointed out the water was beading up as it dripped off the feather of the gull. They wisked that bird away after the cleaning. Then they worked on a Green-Winged Teal Duck. The terrified bird seemed to gaze out at me as I watched. The birds struggle, but are handled gently and expertly. The scrubbing was successful. The water beaded nicely off of the feathers as they rinsed the duck. The beautiful, blue-green feathers were suddenly visible. Watching, I feel as though I am visitor to a sacred ceremony. The terrified wildness of the birds, panicked eyes. The expert, gentle but vigorous scrubbing. The ritual-like three soapy tubs, then the rinse.
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We cannot let history as told by those who assume Power forget. Forget today, forget 2005 or forget the 500 years of neglect, abandonment and indifference that lead to the slow disasters on communities like those in the Gulf or anywhere in our world. Some of you may be aware there is a hurricane named Gustav that is working its way into the Gulf Of Mexico as we speak.
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As Gustav bears down on the Gulf Coast Louisiana it appears possible that a repeat of Katrina is in the making. The storm, currently a category 3 hurricane is projected to make landfall dead upon Louisiana. So far its track is looking similar to Katrina's. The biggest difference this time is that New Orleans will be mostly empty if and when the floods come.
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The second issue of ARISE, New Orleans Indymedia's Quarterly Publication, will be coming out in early September. We are not only asking the community for submissions and/or suggestions for articles, but we'd like to find out how we could better fill a community need with this project. Please email our listserv: imc-neworleans@lists.indymedia.org
For those who may not be familiar with New Orleans Indymedia, it is an
open publishing website where you, and everyone, can go to add events
to the calendar, general news, photos, audio recordings or videos to
share with the wider New Orleans community. It is completely
volunteer-run and held together by the belief in independent, not
corporate, run media outlets. Thank you for any involvement you can muster. In unity and strength, New Orleans Indymedia Team
 Over two hundred march from Armstrong park through the Central Business District to New Orleans City Hall to commemorate International Workers Day. Starting from Armstrong Park members of the Congress of Day Laborers, an organized group of Latino day laborers, led the crowd. They were followed by The Hot Eight, a local brass band. Most of those in attendance arrived shortly after the storm to help with the rebuilding efforts. They have suffered severe exploitation as many employers withheld pay from them for weeks at a time. They also were required to work in very unsafe and unsanitary conditions without proper protective equipment.
 On May 1, New Orleans Indymedia launched the inaugural issue of "Arise," a quarterly print project covering a broad net of social justice issues affecting our city. View and read ARISE: New Orleans Indymedia Quarterly hereTo have your writings considered for the quarterly, please contribute to this website! Or become involved in Indymedia by attending our next open meeting, Friday May 23 at 7pm (location TBA on our calendar), or emailing us at imc-neworleans@lists.indymedia.org
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