“I hope this is the end of it,” said New Orleans Coroner Dr. Frank Minyard today when he declared Jannie Burgess’s death unclassified and its cause undetermined. Burgess died at Memorial Medical Center in the days following Hurricane Katrina when the hospital was flooded and without power. Before dying, Burgess was injected with morphine seven times, but the coroner said the 79-year-old patient was extremely ill — suffering from kidney and liver failure.

“We don’t feel that has contributed to her death,” Minyard said regarding the injections. “We feel it may have some minor contribution.” Minyard added that death from a morphine overdose usually occurs immediately, but Burgess died three hours later.

This death and others lead to an investigation and eventual second-degree murder charges against Memorial Medical Center’s Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses. Then Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti accused Pou and the nurses of killing as many as nine patients, but in July 2007, a grand jury decided not to pursue the charges.

The controversy surrounding the Memorial deaths resurfaced late last year after an article by ProPublica reporter and medical doctor Sheri Fink. In Fink’s story, Dr. Ewing Cook, a senior physician at the hospital, admitted to hastening Burgess’s death: “I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor.”

As part of his investigation, Minyard said he tried to interview Cook, but his attorney, Ralph Capitelli, advised against it.

To the birther, truther, 9/11 Elvis Capricorn One Lee Harvey Oswald Conspiracy file, we can now add a new sinister theory: Peyton Manning intentionally threw the Super Bowl so the Saints would beat the Colts.

That’s the prospect raised by Terence Moore, columnist for the Web site NFL Fanhouse, in an entry titled “Peyton a Double Agent? Some Think So”:

I sought the views of the Colt Nation, and this was interesting: Spanning from Monument Circle to Conseco Fieldhouse to Circle Center Mall to the area near the little race track that features 500 miles each May, a slew of folks alluded to the “c” word, but not for choke. They viewed The Interception as their version of a second gunman on the grassy knoll — as in conspiracy.

Among the conspiracists, some said Manning threw The Interception on purpose to defensive back Tracy Porter who sprinted 74 yards for a touchdown to seal the Saints’ 31-17 victory. Most said he threw it subconsciously.

Whatever the case, both sides said Manning had the Saints’ welfare more than that of the Colts dancing around his mind at the moment.

Consider the evidence for the conspiracists: Manning was born and raised in New Orleans. And his father, Archie, is legendary around the Gulf Coast region. And the Mannings (which includes New York Giants quarterback Eli) knew as well as anybody before the game how much a world championship in New Orleans would brighten the souls of those still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. And [Reggie] Wayne, who possibly ran a shoddy route against Porter, also is from New Orleans.

So Reggie Wayne was in on it, too! This goes deeper than any of us could have imagined. But what does Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard think of this possible act of civic sabotage?

He couldn’t stop laughing from the conference room next to his office when told of the Manning conspiracists who won’t back down.

“So Peyton works his entire life to get this point, and he’s going to throw it all away,” said Ballard, laughing again. His press secretary, Robert Vane, added nearby, between chuckles, “And we also never landed on the moon.”

But, seriously. Was that intentional?

Said Ballard, easing into the non-nonsense voice that he used when he was a lieutenant colonel for the Marines, “That’s ludicrous. It’s just plain ludicrous for people to think that way (about the Super Bowl). There is no question that Peyton Manning wanted to win that game.”

Zounds! Everyone knows that if you deny a conspiracy, you must be one of the conspirators! Apparently Mayor Ballard is in on it too!

At least (dun dun dun dun DUNNNN) … some think so.

The United Kingdom’s premier medical journal The Lancet has retracted a 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. Ever since it was published, the study, which was led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, has caused widespread panic over whether or not parents should have their children vaccinated. Great Britain does not require compulsory immunizations, and when the percentage of kids receiving measles vaccinations dropped, the number of measles cases soared.

In Wakefield’s paper, a team of researchers studied 12 children and suggested the MMR vaccine could have contributed to the development of autism in 8 of the 12 kids. The results of Wakefield’s study have never been replicated.

Charmaine Allesandro, director of The Greater New Orleans Immunization Network, hopes the retraction will finally put the immunization controversy to rest.

“This is good news,” Allesandro says in a statement released to Gambit “Hopefully, parents who have not vaccinated their children will realize that there is no scientific proof linking autism and immunizations, get their children immunized and make the community safer.”

James O’Keefe, who was charged along with three others with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony, has issued a statement saying “no one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.”

The self-identified “investigative journalist” says he could have used a different approach when he and the others posed as telephone company repair people to enter Landrieu’s office, but his intent was to find out whether or not Sen. Landrieu was avoiding constituents’ phone calls.

Read it for yourself.

Do you remember the sitcom “Smart Guy” starring Tahj Mowry, which aired on the WB for three seasons? No?

Most people don’t, so we’re lucky that someone found this clip from the TV show that has the Saints beating the Colts 54-3 in a fictional Super Bowl game. Could Danny Kallis, creator of the show, be the oracle in whom we find predictions of the Saints’ illustrious future?

[Note to readers: The post below is my column for this week’s issue of Gambit. Immediately following is a full set of Troy Henry’s responses to the attacks, from an interview I did with him on Friday, Jan. 22. For reasons of space, I was not able to include all his comments in the Gambit column. — Clancy]

Greek lore tells us that the Siege of Troy lasted 10 years. In New Orleans politics, a week of sustained attacks can seem like a decade. Just ask mayoral candidate Troy Henry.

Henry has been under siege on several fronts in recent weeks, culminating in a barrage of criticism this past week from respected African-American figures and attack ads from one opponent. His critics say he brought it on himself. He says they’re all in cahoots with his real adversary, frontrunner Mitch Landrieu, and that he’s not letting it get to him. He’s also firing back.

The most public — and perhaps most damaging — criticism came from the family of the late Dutch Morial, New Orleans’ first black mayor. Henry’s campaign Web site recently carried a video tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. The tribute, written by Henry’s son, included a family photo of the candidate’s late grandfather, longshoremen’s union leader Clarence “Chink” Henry, with MLK and local civil rights pioneers — including Dutch Morial. Another Henry family photo depicted the candidate’s mother, who was recently named Xavier University’s alumna of the year, with Xavier President Dr. Norman Francis and Civil Sheriff Paul Valteau. More than 100 photos appeared in the tribute.

Morial’s widow, Sybil Morial, fired off a letter to Henry rebuking him for using her late husband’s photo on a political Web site without first asking permission to do so. The Morial family “has never consented to the use of my late husband’s image, voice or likeness in campaign advertising, other than for the political organization he founded, the Louisiana Independent Federation of Electors (LIFE),” she wrote. A Morial family confidant told me afterward that even Marc Morial, who served as mayor from 1994-2002, refrained from using his late father’s image in his campaigns.

In her letter to Henry, which was released to the media, Mrs. Morial concluded, “We are offended by the lack of professionalism and respect of Mr. Henry’s campaign.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, WWL-TV released the results of a highly anticipated mayoral poll that’s good news for Mitch Landrieu and a cold splash of water for his competitors. The scientific telephone poll of 500 people, conducted by the station and the Claris Research Group, found Landrieu’s support at 45% — polling highly in all categories and demographics:

The scientific survey of 500 voters shows Landrieu does well across the board, winning among whites, blacks, men, women and all ages.

Henry’s core of support came in the African American community, while Couhig’s strongest support came in the white community.

Landrieu also outscores the others among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

The only other candidate in the double digits was Troy Henry, polling second at 14%. Coming in third, with 8% apiece, were John Georges and Rob Couhig.

Perhaps more worrisome for many of the candidates was the news that, despite an unprecedented number of forums and the new use of social media to spread their messages, most New Orleans don’t know them, or haven’t heard enough about them to form an opinion:

More than half of those questioned said they had not heard enough about Nadine Ramsey or James Perry rate them favorably or unfavorably.

Forty-two percent had not heard enough about Couhig, and 38 percent said they knew too little about Henry to rate him. For Georges, 31 percent for Georges.

Only seven percent said they didn’t know enough about Landrieu to rate him.

The undecided folks should provide a clue as to whom the candidates will be targeting in the next two weeks:

Pollster Ron Faucheux says 69 percent of the undecided voters are African American. Twenty-four percent are white.

As a result, he predicts a lot of the campaigning from now until election day will focus on the African American community.

I would’ve loved to have sent this poll to Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher and editor of The Nation, but she doesn’t seem to have an email address on the magazine’s Web site. In an endorsement last week of James Perry, vanden Heuvel wrote:

The mayoral race in beleaguered New Orleans has a candidate who is a true social justice advocate and progressive–Nation contributor and civil rights advocate James Perry. The New York Times has declared the race all but over–pushing a “white mayor in NOLA” storyline…

Oh, bull, Ms. vanden Heuvel. First of all, the article to which you link is by the NYT correspondent in “beleaguered” New Orleans, Campbell Robertson, who, unlike you, is actually here, has actually been attending campaign events and seems to have the charmingly antiquated notion that actual reporting means talking to actual people. Second, Robertson’s article “pushed” no such thing:

The balance of power between blacks and whites in New Orleans has been an issue for decades, a back-and-forth that has only intensified since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, now that every election is a referendum on the future of the city. But a recent decision by a black candidate to drop out of the 2010 mayor’s race has made the possibility of a white man in the city’s most powerful office startlingly real.

…which, given these poll results, seems to be true. The only thing being “pushed” here is Katrina vanden Heuvel’s agenda in endorsing a candidate in a race she knows zippo about.

Anyway, read the whole poll over at WWLTV.com (usual disclaimer: Gambit owner Clancy DuBos is also a political analyst for the station, and some of our Gambiteers make regular appearances on the WWL Eyewitness Morning News to create genial havoc).

Tonight’s 10 pm news will bring Part II of the poll — the numbers on the City Council candidates. Given the turnout for last night’s council-at-large forum (6 of the 7 at-large candidates showed up to a crowd of less than 25 people, many of whom were their aides), it looks like the council candidates have some business to attend to in the next two weeks as well.

At 2:20 this afternoon, Troy Henry representative Angela Anthony threw the local political scene into a swivet when she sent out a simple email:

New Orleans Mayoral candidate Troy Henry has scheduled a press conference today to discuss the future of his candidacy. The press conference will be held at his campaign headquarters, located at 140 N. Carrollton Avenue, at 4:30 p.m.

Was Henry getting out? It seemed impossible, but the ominous words “future of his candidacy” was enough catnip to get all 4 TV stations on the spot immediately, as well as the T-P and Gambit. Once we were there, it seemed clear that Henry wasn’t going anywhere, but the rumors were a-flying: Henry was getting a major endorsement. Henry was being supported by the cast of The Wire. Or maybe it was Tremé. No one from Camp Henry was talking.

At 4:30 sharp, Henry took the podium and read a statement:

Today in the Times-Picayune newspaper, columnist James Gill wrote, “Sure, in a rational world, the color of hizzoner’s skin would be irrelevant. But we live in New Orleans.”

Those words should send shivers up the spine of every citizen in this community. Whether the columnist is right or wrong is irrelevant. What is more important is that we don’t let any reporter, any politician, or anyone deduce that a candidate is about to be anointed mayor without the benefit of the democratic process.

No doubt, Mr. Gill has all but prematurely crowned the next mayor as a white mayor. Of course, I strongly disagree with his assessment. I am in this campaign to win because this city needs a champion for change, a new direction….

The whole statement will surely be up on Henry’s Web site soon, but the question-and-answer session that followed was prickly, electric and more than a bit contentious. Clancy DuBos was also there and will surely have some analysis soon, but I got the raw video of the Q&A on my iPhone and uploaded it here (sorry, can’t figure out how to embed the damn thing).

Since Henry’s statement included the words “I am appealing to you — the media — to allow this process to be democratic,” presenting his conference without comment seems the best way to do so. Watch it and let us know what you think in the comments.

There never seems to be a recession in Louisiana political hijinks, as 2009 proved many times over. This was a year of tectonic shifts in the local political paradigm, and the coming year promises to bring more big changes. Herewith, our annual list of the Top 10 Political Stories:

1. Bill Jefferson’s Continued Slide — The former congressman’s misfortunes continued to pile up. He was convicted on 11 of 16 federal felony counts in August after a long-delayed trial in Virginia. Ironically, Jefferson was acquitted of the charge most closely related to the infamous $90,000 in cash that the feds retrieved from his freezer in 2005 — but jurors concluded that his congressional office was an ongoing criminal enterprise under the RICO statute. The trial judge sentenced him to 13 years but let him stay out of jail pending his appeal. In another twist, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering other cases that could overturn some of Jefferson’s convictions. Locally, Dollar Bill’s brother (and political muscle) Mose Jefferson was convicted of bribing a school board member in an unrelated case. Mose and Assessor Betty Jefferson (another Jefferson sibling) face still more federal charges with Mose’s gal pal (and Dollar Bill protégé) Renee Gill-Pratt. Politically, Jefferson’s once-dominant political machine, the Progressive Democrats, is in shambles. The Feb. 6 citywide elections will be the first in three decades in which Dollar Bill is not a factor.

2. The City Hall Scandals — There’s no telling how many separate criminal investigations are underway at City Hall. Former technology chief Greg Meffert was indicted on several dozen criminal counts, along with his wife Linda and former business partner Mark St. Pierre. St. Pierre is the city contractor who paid for the Mefferts and the Nagins to vacation in Hawaii in 2004 and for the Nagins to unwind — first class — in Jamaica shortly after Katrina (while the rest of us were still trying to get back home to New Orleans). On another front, the feds seized various City Hall computers after the mayor’s emails and 2008 calendar mysteriously disappeared (following a WWL-TV request for them under the state Public Records Act). Ironically, tons of City Council emails were produced by the Nagin Administration in response to an unrelated public records request — and some of those emails proved to be cautionary tales against writing things down. More recently, veteran Sewerage and Water Board member Ben Edwards was indicted on 33 counts of corruption, including alleged kickbacks. Edwards spent more than $250,000 “independently” helping Mayor Ray Nagin win re-election in 2006. As the clock winds down on Ray Nagin’s tenure in City Hall, the feds appear to be tightening the circle of suspicion around him.

3. The Mayor’s Race — For a while it seemed that nobody wanted Ray Nagin’s job — then everybody seemed to want it. After a yawner of a preseason, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu lit up the field with his eleventh-hour decision to run. The fallout came quickly as school reformer Leslie Jacobs dropped out a week later. Landrieu, who is making his third bid for the mayor’s office, is once again the early frontrunner. The race for the City Council’s two at-large seats promises to be filled with intrigue as well. Incumbent Arnie Fielkow waited until the last day to qualify, prompting former at-large Councilman Eddie Sapir to jump in. Assessor Darren Mire was another late entry, which seemed to guarantee a scrambled field. Then both Sapir and Mire dropped out on the same day, right before Christmas. State Rep. Austin Badon, who was the first to announce for mayor, was among the first to drop out of that contest, opting instead to run for the council from District E, where he is the early favorite.

4. Suburban Scandals — The feds have been busy all over southeast Louisiana. They indicted and convicted St. John Parish President Bill Hubbard on extortion and money laundering charges, St. Bernard Judge Wayne Cresap on bribery charges, and Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price on tax evasion and depriving citizens of honest services via mail fraud. Meanwhile, FBI agents are looking into Jefferson Parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer’s insurance commission-splitting deals in connection with insurance business at West Jefferson General Hospital and among various parish contractors. Some big names are said to be involved, and this could be the beginning of another round of “Jefferson Scandals.” Look for some fireworks to start in the Jefferson Parish scandal before Mardi Gras, my sources say.

5. Ray Nagin’s Unraveling — Could he possibly be more obtuse, more detached, more disengaged — and less effective as a mayor? While in Cuba (on a junket), he praised Castro’s evacuation plans. That came after he failed to convince the City Council to buy the nondescript Chevron Building and make it the new City Hall. Earlier in the year, he thumbed his nose at the courts and the state Public Records Act when his calendar and emails somehow disappeared. When an outside contractor said that the emails were deleted deliberately by someone who knew what they where doing, he fired the contractor. Meanwhile, a growing list of people who once were close to him are under federal indictment. Here’s the good news: he’ll be gone in 18 weeks.

6. Bobby Jindal’s Minus Touch — The Boy Governor started 2009 as the Wunderkind of the national GOP. Then came his disastrous response to Barack Obama’s first national address and his failure to show any coattails in three separate special elections — including a bid by his former executive counsel for the state Supreme Court in northeast Louisiana (which is supposed to be a Jindal stronghold). As he continues to raise millions nationally for his campaign war chest, the state faces major budget problems.

7. State and City Budget Woes — Bobby Jindal told a state cost-cutting commission to “be bold” in their recommendations. Gee, wasn’t that what we elected him to do as governor? Lawmakers anguished over cutting about $1 billion in operating funds this year, but it only gets worse in the next two years. Locally, Mayor Ray Nagin announced a $68 million deficit, then took a taxpayer-paid trip to Mexico to sign a feel-good sister city agreement. When the City Council revised his proposed budget, Hizzoner retaliated by slashing key services — and then blamed it all on the council. Plus ça change.

8. David Vitter’s Run-up to 2010 — The Biggest Hypocrite in America remains an early favorite to win back his U.S. Senate seat, but not without a fight. He initially drew a potential rival in porn star Stormy Daniels of Baton Rouge, but now he will have a real opponent in Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon. Vitter continues to poll below 50 percent but remains 10 points or more above his main opponents. His infamous bad temper flared up again during an incident at Reagan National Airport when he tried to board a plane late, and all the national attention he’s gets every time there’s another sex scandal anywhere sure makes Louisiana (if not Vitter himself) look bad. Not that he cares.

9. The Saints Deal — For the first time since the state started subsidizing the city’s NFL franchise in 1985, a deal to keep the beloved Saints in New Orleans did not tear the Legislature apart and cost the city valuable political capital. Maybe it’s because Gov. Bobby Jindal also wanted lawmakers to approve $50 million to bail out a north Louisiana chicken processing plant. South Louisiana leges immediately said, “Deal!” Cluck, cluck! Go Saints!

10. The City’s New Master Plan — Like everything else worthwhile that happens here, the city’s new master plan has endured a rough birthing process, but the end results will hopefully be worth it. Don’t let the fact that I’ve listed this as No. 10 fool you. This will be a very important story for decades if we get it right.

A final note: I left former Recovery Chief Ed Blakely off my list of most important political stories. That’s because, even when he was here, Blakely was largely irrelevant. His ridiculous, self-serving comments after his departure proved that.

Here’s hoping 2010 brings better news.

Former New Orleans city councilman Eddie Sapir’s abrupt withdrawal this afternoon from the City Council at-large race* raises an interesting corollary question: What does this mean for the candidacy of Greg Sonnier, the chef, caterer and untested political candidate whose entry into the race was widely seen as a thumb in the eye of Sapir, with whom Sonnier had a long, bitter battle over his attempt to open a restaurant near Sapir’s Uptown home? (For a thumbnail version of all the dramarama, check this 2007 commentary from New Orleans CityBusiness … or just ask any Uptowner who lives around Henry Clay.)

Reached at his catering business this afternoon, Sonnier wasn’t in the mood to talk; he was preparing food for a party. He knew of Sapir’s withdrawal, but had no comment, nor would he comment about his own plans to stay in the race other than “nothing’s changed.”

*(We’re also hearing — and others are reporting — that former assessor Darren Mire has dropped out of the race as well, but haven’t confirmed this on our own.)