May 25, 2007

News Articles

Elderly feel like the forgotten victims of Katrina
In the almost 21 months since Hurricane Katrina, south Mississippi has gone from being a retirement mecca to a community that's struggling to meet the needs of its seniors, reports WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Miss. The three coastal counties lost hundreds of affordable places for seniors to live. And more will close in the coming months.

See WLOX-TV story

Feds dole out $100 million to improve primary care in N.O. area
The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that he would release a new round of grants totaling $195 million to support health care needs along the Gulf Coast, especially among patients who do not have health insurance. About $100 million will flow to clinics in the greater New Orleans area that provide primary care to poor and uninsured patients — the population that would otherwise rely on emergency rooms for basic medical needs, such as vaccinations, reports The Times-Picayune. Although they have absorbed many former charity patients since Hurricane Katrina, many of these clinics do not have a permanent source of funding.

See Times-Picayune article

Corps finds faulty pump in N.O.
One of 34 drainage pumps under investigation for possibly being faulty when they were installed before the start of last year's hurricane season had a minor problem during a test Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers said. The Associated Press reports that Col. Jeffrey Bedey, the corps commander overseeing levee reconstruction, said that the problem forced the pump to be shut down, but that it would be fixed promptly.

See Associated Press article

Officials in Delta blast flood warning
Thousands of Delta residents should buy flood insurance because the levee system protecting them from the Mississippi River could fail, federal officials are warning. But local officials said it's a knee-jerk reaction to Hurricane Katrina and will force residents into spending hundreds of unnecessary dollars as well as scare away potential businesses, reports The Clarion-Ledger.

See Clarion-Ledger article

Gas companies must pay
Five gas distributors accused of gouging customers at the pump after Hurricane Katrina - including Southern Oil in Hattiesburg - will pay the state $293,254 in penalties, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday. The companies that sell fuel to gas stations earned a total $33,530 from raised prices after the August 2005 storm, Hood said. In the settlement, the firms did not admit any wrongdoing, reports the Hattiesburg American.

See Hattiesburg American article

Katrina funds aid scientific projects
Louisiana State University is among the universities benefiting significantly from more than $25 million awarded Thursday from the "Post-Katrina Support Fund Initiative," reports The (Baton Rouge) Advocate. The Louisiana Board of Regents selected four targeted, scientific research projects statewide to receive more than $21 million of the funds to spur economic development after the 2005 hurricanes. The projects include $7 million to enhance research manpower at the LSU-based Louisiana Optical Network Initiative Institute for supercomputing and $5.5 million for a new Center of Excellence for Vaccine Development at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

See Advocate article

Design complete for Katrina monument
Design is complete and fundraising continues for a $1.5 million Hurricane Katrina volunteers memorial to be built at the Interstate 10 welcome center in Hancock County, reports The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. The imposing memorial, consisting of a walkway, pool and wave-shaped fountain, will rise 30 feet in the air, exactly the height of the storm surge that swamped the county in 2005. The memorial is being built in gratitude to the thousands of volunteers who have come from across the county to help in hurricane relief.

See Sun Herald article

Sign will no longer welcome motorists to New Orleag
It was like a lot of things in New Orleans that are broken or poorly maintained, but in the city that care forgot, no one seemed to mind. Until Tuesday. That's when state Rep. Austin Badon Jr., D-New Orleans, got fighting mad on the House floor as he ridiculed the state transportation agency for failing to fix a sign on Interstate 10 that misspelled New Orleans as "New Orleag." There it was, for thousands of drivers a day to see, hovering over the westbound lane of the high-rise, the main artery over the Industrial Canal leading into the city, reports The Times-Picayune. After Badon's harangue, employees at a state highway department workshop in Baton Rouge stayed late Tuesday preparing a new $2,000 sign, and on Wednesday an agency crew worked through the rain to hang the seven-piece, 200-pound aluminum panel in place of the old one.

See Times-Picayune article

Government Data

Federal Procurement Data System
The Federal Procurement Data System posted its latest information on hurricane-related contract awards. The system has been updated to include Defense Department and FEMA contracts. The total spent on post-Katrina contracts as of May 24 stands at $15.5 billion.

FPDS Katrina contracts