As We Could Be Famous reported earlier this evening:

HUD, the FBI, and New Orleans’ inspector general have all opened up investigations into NOAH.

WWLTV will report this later.

And indeed the station did, in yet another excellent report by Lee Zurik. It was 7-8 minutes long, and WWL just has the prècis on its website at the moment (the video will probably be up soon), but these are the high points:

Eyewitness News has learned that New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli, HUD and the FBI have launched investigations into the city’s non-profit agency – New Orleans Affordable Home Ownership – and the home remediation program that ran from December 2006 to July 2007.

In addition, Mayor Ray Nagin has asked the city’s Office of Recovery to look into the matter, according to Ceeon Quiett, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

The investigations follow a series of reports by Eyewitness News that raised questions about the program.

What a difference a week makes in City Hall:

“How is that report helping this recovery?” Nagin asked at a July 22 press conference. “It is not, and it’s hurting this city, and you need to stop it.”

From “stop it” to “we’re looking into it” in one week.

It’s fair to say that Zurik is owning this story in the mainstream media right now, but he’s sharing custody with some dogged New Orleans bloggers who have been providing excellent digging and reportage, two of the most prominent being We Could Be Famous and Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, who smelled a story first…and cared enough about their city’s recovery to do something about it.

With these people on it — and others — I don’t think the story is over yet. Not by a long shot.

The Great American Seafood Cook-Off is coming up this weekend at the Convention Center as part of the Louisiana Foodservice EXPO. Visit the competition’s Web site and you’ll discover that one of its sponsors is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency. Its ‘history of’ page (screen grab above) explains that it’s a “New Agency” from 1970 that has a 200 year history. It also has a logo sinking into a body of water - not so encouraging given the Bush Administration’s foot dragging on global warming. News pages of the site report that this summer’s Gulf of Mexico deadzone is only 8,000 square miles. It didn’t reach expectations because Hurricane Dolly churned oxygen into the Gulf … so hurricanes are really good?  Read the rest of this entry »

Why, you ask, would I post this video? Well, aside from the awesomeness of the play and the fact that I’m aching to get back to Jackson, Miss. and put up Saints video, it’s just a reminder that this play took place on the same field the Saints are practicing on regularly.

Is that a sign? I don’t know. It’s definitely an amazing play, though.

People went out “on a limb” yesterday and said Sedrick Ellis is close to signing, but he’s still not in camp. Not that he’s missing much, as the Saints practiced light this morning. The big news is Mike McKenzie, who’s back in practice after tearing his ACL last season and improves an already loaded defensive back corps. Despite the good news, some are skeptical about how healthy the Saints will be. Hey, at least Shockey seems like he’s fitting in well.

The Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern chain? Uh-oh:

Customers showing up for lunch at Bennigan’s restaurants in Chicago and across the country found quite a surprise Tuesday morning, when all the corporate-owned locations had signs on display reading “closed for business”…

Bennigan’s Grill and Tavern closed all of its corporate-owned locations nationwide after filing for bankruptcy. Independent franchises remain open for business as usual.

Managers said the mass-shutdown went into effect at midnight Monday night, and there was no warning.

At Bennigan’s Metairie location, an employee named Tanisha confirmed the bad news, but said that all Louisiana locations were open for business as usual; they’re all franchises. Hurray: The Kilkenny Country Chicken Salad has been saved — along with a lot of Louisiana jobs.

(Bennigan’s seems to have taken down its website already. The franchisees may want to have a word with corporate about that.)

When elderly people get too out of touch with the modern world to properly look after themselves, they are often placed in retirement homes. When popular musicians reach this point, they, too, retire to a home of sorts where they can receive the kind of care and consideration they will need going forward. We call these places “casinos.”

     In your immediate area, there are at least three shining examples of such music health facilities: Harrah’s New Orleans, Boomtown in Harvey and Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss. In August, the latter hosts incite-ful bible study with the unplugged ’60s version of Rage Against the Machine, Mssrs. Crosby, Stills and Nash (Aug. 6), and a smooth bingo hour with ’90s crooner and cover-butcher Michael Bolton (Aug. 22). September at Boomtown brings blind board games with country crossover Ronnie Milsap (Sept. 13). And there’s no disagreeing with Harrah’s October story time featuring the immortal Dave Mason (Oct. 17).

     So, stop by one of these centers and pay your respects to a pop patriarch. For life is short, and it won’t be long till it’s time for the Lawrence Welk revue with Amy Winehouse and trivia Tuesday with Justin Timberlake.    

This week’s Gambit — the entertainment issue — has a calendar of all the major film releases between now and December, along with a jaded look at the less-than-inspiring lineup.Among the new films is Oliver Stone’s already-controversial W, the writer-director’s biography of George W. Bush. The movie’s first trailer surfaced yesterday, and subtle it ain’t; aside from the always-excellent Jeffrey Wright’s impersonation of Colin Powell, the rest of it looks like a community-theater production. What do you think?

It was only last week that Mayor Nagin emphatically told  Zurik, Karen Gadbois and Sarah Lewis that they were hurting the recovery and “(they) needed to stop.” Nagin was referring to the story Zurik did about New Orleans Affordable Homeownership concerning homes the agency allegedly remediated for the elderly and low income.  The story originated from an investigation by Squandered Heritage  and WeCouldBeFamous  (I don’t believe it, E).

     Now, Zurik has the audacity to produce another report about the “right list” that Nagin referred to in the press conference when he blasted the bloggers and Zurik.

     When is it going to stop, Zurik? If you and these meddling bloggers keep it up, someone might end up going to jail. And if this continues, how will E over at WeCouldBeFamous keep up with the kitschy titles?