by Alejandro de los Rios

Well, the AP might consider the Hornets’ Mardis Gras gold jerseys fashion-backwards (scroll to the bottom of the link, under “Game Notes”), but that isn’t stopping the Hornets from going all gold tonight at the Hive Nest. George Shinn ws kind enough to pose for this picture pre-game and said that it was Chris Paul’s idea to give out the shirts.

“He asked and we delivered,” Shinn said.

The shirts would have been delivered earlier — namely, for Game 5 against the Mavericks — but they couldn’t all be printed in time. If y’all remember Game 1 of that series (it seems so long ago, doesn’t it) I interviewed Melvin Ely about being back in the playoffs a year after winning a title with the Spurs. Ely had mentioned that he thought about bringing his championship ring in, but forgot. Did he bring it tonight?

“Naw, I didn’t think it was necessary,” he said.

How so?

“Today in shoot around, everyone was real focused,” he said. “Players were really vocal. I’ve been here a year and that’s only happened a few times. I didn’t want to bring in any distractions.”

The team still isn’t tense, though. While they might not be playing dodgeball in the locker room, they are loose, laughing and joking around. Ely, for example, had to deal with in the form of Hilton Armstrong, who was making faces and saying “like little baby toes, like mini vienna sausages” (quotes from the movies “Superbad”) behind the reporter and cameraman. How is it that Ely was able to keep his focus?

“Years of practice,” he said.

Tip-off is at 9:10 so, if you’re reading this, put on some gold and get to a television. Now.

By: Allen Johnson

Addressing the first New Orleans Police Academy class to graduate since the murder of Officer Nicola Cotton three months ago, NOPD Deputy Chief Anthony Cannatella told 30 new officers they would face a “new type of criminal” on the city’s streets. Cannatella, a 41-year veteran of the NOPD, said the freshly minted cops would encounter offenders who were “more violent and more dangerous” than those ever encountered by most of NOPD’s senior commanders during their own patrols. Police Chief Warren Riley later said Recruit Class No. 160 received “much more” training in self-defense than previous classes as well as “take-down tactics” and instruction in the use of Mace, Tasers and police batons. “They have always fought in the academy, it’s just more intense, and they fight on a more regular basis,” Riley says. New Officer Stephanie Horak, 24, a native of Nebraska, joined NOPD after four post-Katrina trips here as a Christian relief organizer. “I learned a lot from the defensive tactics,” says Horak, the top academic graduate who also holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Missouri State University. Horak’s first assignment is the tough Sixth Police District — where Cotton worked when she was shot to death with her own gun by a mental patient on Jan. 28. 

By: Allen Johnson

Crime-weary New Orleans residents and business owners who want Gov. Bobby Jindal to delay withdrawing 300 Louisiana National Guard troops — scheduled to begin in June — are circulating an online petition (www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/680554178), according to petition organizer Ariane Wiltse, a member of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association (www.helpholycross.org) and an occasional contributor to Gambit Weekly. “We also have copies that I have been giving to residents and churches,” says Wiltse. The group wants Jindal to keep Guard troops in the city until violent crime rates fall, NOPD restaffs and rebuilds police substations in storm-affected areas, and NOPD’s strength returns to pre-storm levels. NOPD had a high of 1,741 cops in 2005, compared to 1,472 last week. Police Chief Warren Riley, who in 2006 asked then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco to deploy the Guard (and 55 State Police) to help NOPD, said recently that the “phase-out” of Guard troops would begin with the departure of a “small contingent” at the end of June. “At this point, by the end of September, the Guard will probably be gone,” Riley told an April 18 news conference. State Police withdrew earlier this year. Local crime usually increases during the hot summer months.

The year-long effort of business and civic leaders across southeast Louisiana to assemble a regional economic engine centered on Armstrong International Airport presents Mayor Ray Nagin with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that few mayors ever get to see.

The effort has been dubbed “Global New Orleans,” although it could more aptly be described as a “global triangle” anchored by Baton Rouge, the Northshore and New Orleans. It harnesses all the key economic drivers for southeast Louisiana: interstate highways, an international airport ripe for expansion, rail lines, the Mississippi River, one of the world’s largest port systems (just in time for the Panama Canal expansion), and one of the world’s most beloved and culturally enriched cities.

In short, it would provide the “jump start” or “tipping point” to post-Katrina recovery efforts that Nagin has long promised. Read the rest of this entry »