Residents of City Council District E can put in their 2 cents about how the city should spend its money at a community meeting in the Lower 9th Ward tonight from 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) to 8 p.m. at Martin Luther King Charter School (1617 Caffin Ave.). Mayor Mitch Landrieu and District E Councilman Jon Johnson organized the meeting, which also will include Police Chief Ronal Serpas, New Orleans Fire Department Supt. Charles Parent, city deputy mayors and department heads.

Read Matt Davis’ Aug. 3 blog post about the first District E community meeting held Aug. 2 at House of Faith in eastern New Orleans to see what concerns were voiced and how Landrieu responded.

The mayor has planned a series of community meetings in various districts during August as part of his stated commitment to seeking public input concerning how New Orleans is rebuilt and the challenges it faces with $67 million in red ink.

Ryan Berni, the mayor’s press secretary, says Landrieu plans to release a calendar of future community meetings tomorrow.

Go to a Zephyrs game tonight — and you could make history.
Singer-songwriter Chubby Checker will celebrate 50 years of the Twist, a dance craze he sparked with his 1960 hit of the same name, by leading the crowd in the dance to break the world record for the most people doing the Twist at the same time. The Guinness Book of World Records currently lists the record at 1,700.
The Zephyrs vs. the Albuquerque Isotopes game starts at 7 p.m.
Checker also will perform a concert Saturday, Aug. 14, at the Sigur Civic Center (8245 W. Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette) to benefit the Tower of Lights Project, which seeks to install lights on the 540-foot Port of St. Bernard Tower as a way to show thanks to the volunteers who have helped St. Bernard Parish’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures.
Tickets are $40 each and are limited to 3,000. Doors open at 6 p.m., the Chalmette High Jazz Band plays at 6:30 p.m. and Checker takes the stage at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at any A-1 Appliance store.
Checker made “The Twist” popular as a song and a dance by touring heavily in support of his recording, starting in 1959. On Sept. 19, 1960, it was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. It took that position again on Jan. 13, 1962 — the first time a single topped the charts in the United States at two separate times. The Fat Boys featuring Chubby Checker re-recorded “The Twist” in 1988, and it reached No. 1 in Germany and No. 2 in the United Kingdom. Rolling Stone has ranked “The Twist” No. 451 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
Checker made the song his trademark, but he didn’t write it. It was originally released in 1959 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, with Ballard receiving writing credit.

Glenn Beck declared himself a “revolutionary” on his eponymous Fox News program Saturday while urging Tea Party members not to fall prey to frustration and give up on the developing but unorganized “social movement” for political change.

He called for persistence in conveying opinions to Washington and warned against getting mired in frustration and infighting, calling on Darth Vader to illustrate how negative forces can exploit anger and hatred to quash a movement. He also railed against giving up.

“If you’re done, the Republic is done,” he said.“They’ll have to kill me before I’ll stop. I’ll never stop speaking out.” It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you’re doing, Beck said: “I’m not a journalist. Ten years ago I was a Top 40 DJ. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

The Louisiana National Guard has finished a land bridge on Elmer’s Island, a wildlife refuge, that should protect the wetlands from being inundated by oil from the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf — and provides a reliable road for moving equipment needed for cleanup efforts.

There already was a land bridge at the site along Thunder Bayou, but it was built only a foot above the high tide mark. Engineers elevated the existing bridge and reinforced it with a geotextile fabric liner, 2,400 tons of rocks and 1,800 cubic yards of sand.

“The purpose of the bridge was to keep water from overflowing into the protected marsh and as a bridge over the gap” between Grand Isle and Elmer’s Island,” 2nd Lt. Christopher Hardy says. The bridge now is about 4 feet above high-tide level.

Hardy says the renovated bridge should diminish the threat of oil damaging the habitat of herons, pelicans and terns.

In another body blow to the New Orleans economy, Northrop Grumman announced yesterday it has decided to move all its Gulf Coast shipbuilding operations to Pascagoula, Miss. when current construction projects at Avondale are completed in 2013. That means the 5,000 people who now work at Avondale will have to find new jobs. Another estimated 7,000 jobs also depend on the shipyard.

From Northrop Grumman’s perspective, it’s just good business to consolidate operations for the sake of efficiency and the bottom line. The company said it further plans to separate shipbuilding from its other enterprises. “Recognizing our company’s long-term strategic priorities, we foresee little synergy between shipbuilding and our other businesses,” says Wes Bush, CEO and president of Northrop Grumman. “It is now appropriate to explore separating shipbuilding from Northrop Grumman.”

Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La., says he will try to keep the 5,000 jobs in the New Orleans area. “Taking away thousands of shipbuilding jobs in an area known worldwide for its shipbuilding is a real blow to us,” he said in a statement. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time because we are still dealing with the effects of (Hurricane) Katrina and, now, the economically debilitating effects of the oil spill. … We have real possibilities for bridging the funding gaps. This isn’t the end for these jobs, and I will continue to fight to keep them here in Southeast Louisiana.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., vows she will try to get company officials to reverse the decision “to turn its back on Louisiana and the thousands of workers in the state,” she says. “While the company might believe this decision will have a positive effect in the short term on its bottom line, the long-term consequences for Louisiana’s economy, our national security and Northrop Grumman itself will be devastating.”

Northrop Grumman says it only has two transport ships to be built at Avondale by 2013 under current contracts. In February, the Navy canceled plans for two amphibious ships that were to be built at Avondale. With declining contracts for seagoing vessels, Northrop Grumman says it may get out of shipbuilding altogether.