by Alejandro de los Rios

This is the Hornets David West being interviewed by Adam Norris from ABC 26. Norris, silly man that he is, was talking to West about, of all things, basketball. Sure, D-West is an All-Star and has been pivotal to the team’s success this year, but probably the most interesting thing about him is this blurb from his bio in the Hornets media guide: “is an accomplished tuba player.”

Yea, like the instrument. As soon as I read this I imagined West playing alongside the Soul Rebels or some other NOLA brass band. I had to make it happen. But first, I had to confirm. D-West, you play the tuba?

“Yea for a little while,” he said.

How much is a little while? Read the rest of this entry »

Even after almost two years and numerous doubts cast about the hydraulic pumps located at the floodgates at the outfall canals, many of these pumps haven’t been tested for the amount of time they’re expected to run when the gates are closed. Ray Newman, captain of the 17^th St. Canal and a civilian member of the Corps of Engineers, says there’s just not enough water to test the hydraulic pumps.

“That all comes down to the amount of water Sewerage and Water Board (SW&B) can give us.”

Newman says that when they see a significant rain event forecasted, the Corps contacts SW&B and asks them to hold back water, so there is a significant amount in the 17 St. Canal to run the floodgate pumps, which, in the case of the hydraulic pumps, require at least two feet of water. There are two kinds of pumps at the floodgates: hydraulic (the ones that were never adequately tested before being installed at the floodgates and had vibration problems) and the direct drive pumps, which are larger and, Newman reports, can run at lower canal-water levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a run-down on turnout in last Saturday’s congressional primaries. But first, it’s important to recognize that persons registered as belonging other “recognized” parties (Green Party, Libertarian and Reform) could not vote in either party primary last Saturday. That makes precise calculations of turnout difficult, because the Secretary of State’s Web site does not show registration numbers for those parties. Instead, the Greens, Libertarians and Reformers are lumped in with the “no party” voters and other “unrecognized” party voters as “other party” registrants. That said, here’s my best guess as to turnout.

The Democrats “opened” their primary, but only to those who are registered as “no party” or to “unrecognized” parties (Socialist Workers, etc.) I calculated the Democratic turnout using the total registered Democrats and the total registered “other party” figures, which obviously gives me a total number of “eligible voters” that’s too big. However, if I’m correct in assuming that the total number of Greens, Libertarians and Reformers is relatively small in those two districts, my figures will only be off (too low) from the true turnout figure by a tenth or two of a percentage point. I am therefore putting an asterisk after the Democratic and total turnout figures. Because the Republicans restricted their primary to Republicans only, we have a true turnout figure for that primary. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

A breakdown of the latest chapter in Senator David Vitter’s prostitution scandal as it relates to the recent discovery that Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer was also involved in a prostitution ring. (The Legal, Jindal, Clinton/McCain, and Prostitution Questions below the fold)

1) The Political Question/Spitzer Could Use Vitter as a Possible Defense

Aside from the immediate similarities in the two scandals, there are those that are wondering whether the political alliances of the Justice Department made the difference in how the news broke. They note that after the D.C. Madame was arrested, leaks never made it out of the Justice Department about Vitter. It was Hustler Magazine that broke the story on Vitter after a reporter scanned phone records that the D.C. Madame herself released on the internet (out of fear of political manipulation she claimed). In the Spitzer case, the prostitution ring he was apparently involved with was broken up just one week ago by federal law enforcement. Spitzer was not named on the affidavit in court papers filed with the case but the New York Times, through a “law enforcement official and a person briefed on the investigation”, identified Governor Spitzer’s involvement and broke the story. Read the rest of this entry »