Best Of New Orleans Blog

Local blogger Kevin Allman has more on Nagingate, the developing, mysterious disappearance from the Times-Picayune’s pages of first editorial criticisms directed at our (de)famed mayor’s new pictorialized gun policy and, now, letters to the editor about said incident.

“After scrubbing its editorial page criticism of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin — first in the print edition(s), and then in its online edition — the Times-Picayune seems to have removed two letters to the editor about the incident from its website, replacing them with two different letters that did not appear on the main editorial page of today’s edition.”

Read the vanished letters on Allman’s blog.

Starting Feb 22, a bunch of salvaged building materials will be on display at The Shops at Canal Place. Strange, you ask? Well here’s the best part: the salvaged building materials have been used by local furniture designers, artists and hobbyists to create furniture projects that will be up for auction at the end of the exhibit. The projects will be on display through March 14. On the 14th, there will be a cocktail reception, live auction and awards presentation. All of the proceeds of this juried furniture exhibition and auction will benefit the Green Project, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to creatively promoting and encouraging environmental sustainibility.” Green Project accepts donated, recycled building materials in good condition for resale at their bulding materials recycling store in Bywater. The organization also operates a variety of other programs and educational opportunities. For more information visit its Web site at : www.thegreenproject.org

by Sam Winston

Famed conservative Washington D.C. journalist and columnist Robert Novak weighs in on the Recovery in New Orleans. He praises Inspector General Cerasoli, Warren Riley, and Keva Landrum in addition to charter schools, Donald Powell, and less government. Ray Nagin doesn’t get as favorable a mention. Some interesting quotes…

“Physical reconstruction is slow, and the city never will regain its former size or appearance. But civic leaders I met here agreed that law enforcement, criminal justice, education and health all are better than they were before Katrina.”

Do they really?

And I’ve went over the quote below a couple of times and I’m still not exactly sure what this is supposed to mean. If it sounds out of context read the whole thing and it’ll read the same way… (more…)

by Sam Winston

A friend of mine told me the other day that he talked to a store clerk at Lakeside who said Hornets merchandise had been flying off the racks recently. He heard the same thing at the video game store for anything that was “NBA” related. Then there was the unexpected home sellout this week against the Grizzlies of all teams. That tells me two things. Football season is over and most everybody (myself included) may have underestimated New Orleans’ ability to get excited about the Hornets, at least for a little while. The media hype is certainly pitching up for the weekend but check out this in-depth profile from the USA Today on Chris Paul’s humble upbringing and his involvement in the New Orleans community as a worthy Act II to Drew Brews and the Saints of 2006-07.

“As a rookie, Paul picked out a house to buy near Canal Street, but the storm blew away his dream before it was realized. The team temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City, and he never closed on the property. Now he lives in a condominium down by the water, in the same development as New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush.”

by Sam Winston

The Christian Conservatives are not happy with McCain and they plan on doing something about it (a third-party perhaps?). It could be going down in the Big Sleazy of all places.

“Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and anti-abortion activist, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that while he could back the Arizona senator over either Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, he made clear that he and others in the evangelical movement are not content with those choices…

Several Christian conservative leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fischer has invited them to a follow-up meeting next month in New Orleans coinciding with another Council for National Policy meeting.”