The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry wants you to know: Louisiana tomatoes are perfectly safe to eat, despite a salmonella outbreak in 13 other states:

Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed Louisiana-grown tomatoes on their approved safe to buy and eat list.

“Louisiana tomatoes are at peak season right now but the big supermarket chains were refusing to buy them from our state growers because of a Salmonella outbreak in New Mexico and Texas,” Strain said. “I asked the FDA to include us on the list of safe states to buy and eat locally grown tomatoes and they responded promptly.”

No deaths have been reported from eating diseased tomatoes, but at least 23 people have been hospitalized from eating the fruit. As Tomato Hysteria ‘08 continues to spread, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Chipotle Mexican Grill have stopped serving tomatoes for the duration.

But if you were planning to go to this weekend’s Creole Tomato Festival in the French Quarter? Go.

CNN ON NOLA CRIME: “Crime a Blues Refrain for New Orleans.” (It’s currently the top story on CNN.com.)…

QB DUI OMG!: Former Saints quarterback Kenny Stabler arrested yesterday for DUI. It’s his third…

TAINTED LOVE APPLES: A salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes spreads to 16 states, though Louisiana is spared for the moment. (You know the organizers of this weekend’s Creole Tomato Festival have to be plotzing at the public perception and tabloidish-tomatoish headlines, but THERE’S NO DANGER WITH THE CREOLES, PEOPLE)…

BYE, BYE WI-FI: You know that citywide municipal WiFi system? The provider, Earthlink, is getting out of the WiFi game, and the city won’t be picking up the ball. This would be a bigger deal if it ever actually, you know, worked….

New Orleans writer Greg Herren received a Lambda Literary Award last week for his latest novel, Murder in the rue Chartres.

Herren, the author of six New Orleans mysteries including Bourbon Street Blues, Jackson Square Jazz, and Murder in the rue Dauphine, won for Best Men’s Mystery. At the time of the book’s publication, Publishers Weekly praised it and its author, saying “Herron, a loyal New Orleans resident, paints a brilliant portrait of the recovering city, including insights into its tight-knit gay community.”

The Lambda Literary Awards are presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, which describes itself as “the country’s leading organization for LGBT literature.”

Lorin Gaudin, the host of WRNO-FM’s Sunday morning chow-chat show “All Over Food,” has ankled the station for a slot on WIST-AM.

Dan Frazier, WIST’s general manager, confirmed the move this morning. “We’ve got a lot of local stuff on the weekends,” he said, “including America’s first cocktail show, so this is a perfect fit.”

Gaudin’s departure from WRNO is the station’s second high-profile local defection in recent months (following longtime TV/radio personality Andre Trevigne, who left under circumstances that are still unclear) since WRNO transformed its identity in early April from “The New 99.5” to “Rush Radio,” adding a lineup of syndicated talkers that includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck.

WIST (the former WTIX-AM) is owned by George H. Buck, proprietor of the Palm Court Jazz Café in the French Quarter. The station is moving from its longtime Metairie location to studios above the Palm Court “in about two weeks,” according to the station’s noontime talker Eric Asher.

“I am extremely enthusiastic about moving to a station with so much local programming and local ownership,” said Gaudin this morning. She would not elaborate on her departure from WRNO.

“All Over Food” makes its debut on WIST July 5, and will be heard on Saturday mornings from 9-11 a.m.

DAWN OF THE BUG: The Audubon Insectarium opened this weekend to Audubon members (it opens to the public this Friday). If the crowd on Sunday is any indication, Ron Forman & Co. have a huge hit on their hands…

THE DOCTOR IS IN, AND HE’S P.O.’D: Jon Pareles profiles Dr. John in The New York Times and finds that the doctor’s still ticked off at the whole Katrina thing. Who knew?…

CHARTER SCHOOLS: The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews examines our charter school controversy….

NOLA 911!: Looky at what WWL-TV found:

Hundreds of documents including police reports, internal investigations of officers and district attorneys files have apparently been sitting in an unsecured and unoccupied former Fifth District Police Station for some time…

Money quote:

When asked why some of the documents were stamped, “Confidential,” [Police Superintendent Warren] Riley responded.

“Because it says confidential on it doesn’t mean it’s for police use only.”

Guess not. At this point, it’s all just scratch paper…

WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET?: Whitney Bank has acquired Parish National. What does it mean? I dunno. My ATM card still says Hibernia, and it still works fine…

MUSIC: The Chicory has a nice writeup of Clint Maedgen’s performance at the Ogden last week, complete with YouTube goodness. Gambit’s Alison Fensterstock interviewed Clint between sets; in this week’s Gambit, she has a preview of his performance tomorrow night at Zeitgeist.