A 'Road Home' to Lunacy
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 6, 2007; Page A17
NEW ORLEANS -- It's beyond frustrating to hear well-meaning bureaucrats cite all
the reasons that so little has been done to rebuild this ruined city and the
rest of the Gulf Coast -- why, for example, out of more than 100,000 Louisiana
households that have applied to the state government for their share of $7
billion in federal reconstruction funds, fewer than 400 have received their
money.
That's no misprint, and I'm being generous. As of last week, when I attended a
Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing at the Louisiana Supreme Court
building in the historic French Quarter, the actual number of homeowners who had
gotten reconstruction money from this program, called Road Home, was 331. My
hopeful assumption is that a few more checks have trickled out since then.
The three senators who flew down to conduct the hearing -- committee Chairman
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), home-state champion Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and
presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- were remarkably focused and
patient, given the circumstances. I got so exasperated that I had to let my mind
wander, and it settled on Brownian motion.
That's not a reference to Michael Brown, the ridiculous former director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brownian motion is a natural phenomenon
that bewildered 19th-century physicists. Looking through their microscopes, they
could see that a tiny particle suspended in a fluid -- a mote of dust, say --
didn't just float in place. It did a jittery little dance, abruptly jerking left
and right and forward and back, always in motion.
It took Albert Einstein to figure out what was going on. Einstein explained that
the infinitesimal molecules of the fluid, randomly zooming to and fro, are
colliding with the relatively gargantuan piece of dust. If, at a given instant,
more molecules hit it from the right than from the left, it moves left. The next
instant, if more molecules hit it from the south than from the north, it moves
north. The buffeted particle just zigzags aimlessly, never really getting
anywhere.
That's where the recovery of New Orleans stands, or floats. Factors such as
subparagraph-level provisions of federal programs, fine-print details of a
contract signed by the state government and shifting alliances in municipal
politics -- minuscule things, compared with the size of the job that must be
done -- push from all sides, and the result is a frenzied stasis.
One example: Almost a year ago, Congress appropriated $10.4 billion in special
housing funds for reconstruction in Louisiana. Federal bureaucrats at the
hearing last week were at pains to tell the senators why the requirement that
the state ante up 10 percent of that total in matching funds was being enforced,
since this statutory provision was waived in other recent disasters such as the
Sept. 11 attacks and several Florida hurricanes.
And no one even tried to explain why Washington won't just let Louisiana write a
check for its 10 percent share, and instead wants the state to write, justify
and track a separate 10 percent check for each individual rebuilding project --
thousands upon thousands of checks.
Everyone knows this is insanity. Nobody does anything about it.
Another example: Remember those lucky homeowners who have gotten their Road Home
checks? The first thing they're being required to do is pay back, in full, any
loans they previously received under a special Small Business Administration
rebuilding program. Anything else we can do for you?
Washington complains that the state and local governments were painfully slow to
develop their reconstruction plans -- and that's true. State and local officials
respond that it took months to understand and comply with all the federal rules
their projects must follow to qualify for funding -- and that's true, too.
Donald E. Powell, the Texas banker whom President Bush appointed to coordinate
the federal post-Katrina recovery effort, was the committee hearing's opening
witness. When Obama asked in plain language what the prospects were for an
ordinary homeowner who wanted to rebuild and come home, Powell said
thoughtfully, "That's a tough question . . . a complex question." Then he spoke
about new tax incentives, which he is certain will persuade developers to build
affordable housing.
Tax incentives? With most of the city still in ruins? Hello?
To escape the death dance of Brownian motion, New Orleans needs force applied in
one coherent direction. I have an idea: If Gen. David H. Petraeus is as smart
and tough as the president says he is, if he's good enough to save Baghdad, the
president should immediately send him to New Orleans instead -- or explain why
policing a civil war in Iraq takes priority over resurrecting a great American
city.
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New Orleans residents are bailing out
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago
Friday, February 09, 2007
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is a city on a knife's edge. A year and a half after
Hurricane Katrina, an alarming number of residents are leaving or seriously
thinking of getting out for good.
They have become fed up with the violence, the bureaucracy, the political
finger-pointing, the sluggish rebuilding and the doubts about the safety of the
levees.
"The mayor says, `Come back home. Every area should come back.' For what?" said
Genevieve Bellow, who rebuilt her home in heavily damaged eastern New Orleans
but has been unable to get anything done about the trash and abandoned apartment
buildings in her neighborhood and may leave town. "I have no confidence in
anything or anybody."
A survey released in November found that 32 percent of city residents polled may
leave within two years. University of New Orleans political scientist Susan
Howell, who did the survey, said more will give up if the recovery does not pick
up speed.
In fact, figures from the nation's top three moving companies suggest more
people left the area than moved into it last year.
"People are in a state of limbo. They're asking, `Is it worth it for me to stay?
Is it worth it to invest?' If you don't feel safe, from crime or the levees, and
you see destruction every day when you drive, it becomes discouraging," Howell
said.
If there is an exodus, it could mean more than just a shrunken New Orleans. It
could mean a poorer city, financially and culturally, and a more desperate one,
too, since the people likely to leave are the most highly educated and younger.
Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco have urged residents to return under
rebuilding plans with names like Bring New Orleans Back and Road Home. The mayor
has warned that the recovery will take a decade and has urged people not to give
up hope.
But New Orleans' population appears to have plateaued at about half the
pre-storm level of 455,000, well short of Nagin's prediction of 300,000 by the
end of 2006. And in many ways, it is a meaner city than it was before the
hurricane.
New Orleans ended 2006 with 161 homicides, for a murder rate higher than it was
before Katrina and more than 4 1/2 times the national average for cities its
size. After starting 2007 with practically one killing a day, the city has at
least 19 slayings so far this year.
The criminal justice system is in disarray, with public defenders so overworked
and witnesses so reluctant to testify that the courts are revolving doors,
putting criminals back on the street. Mistrust between police and the public is
running high, in part because seven officers were arrested in a deadly shooting
during the chaotic aftermath of Katrina.
Nagin and Police Chief Warren Riley announced a plan last month to crack down on
crime with checkpoints and the putting of more police on the beat.
For Jennifer Johansen, it is too little, too late. Johansen's neat yellow house
in New Orleans Irish Channel is for sale, and the nurse, who returned to the
city after Katrina, hopes to be in Seattle before spring.
The gunfire she used to hear until about a month ago made her uneasy about
watching TV in her living room, and she yearns to live in a vibrant, safe city.
"I kept thinking, things would get better. But it just took too long for a
response from the city, the mayor, the police chief, to address the increased
crime," she said.
Louisiana demographer Elliott Stonecipher said: "You get the sense talking to
people on the ground in New Orleans that a lot of people are right on the edge.
They're just about to the point where they believe they have to decide."
Blanco's Road Home program, born 10 months after the storm, has been vilified by
politicians and civic leaders as too slow to distribute $7.5 billion in federal
aid to buy out homeowners or help them rebuild. As of Feb. 5, Road Home had
taken 105,739 applications and resolved only 532 cases, granting $33.8 million.
At the current rate, Road Home would take more than 13 years to complete.
Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called Road Home a debacle.
In hopes of jump-starting the neighborhood rebuildings, the mayor has put in
place a gap-loan program to let homeowners borrow on their promised Road Home
grants.
City, state and federal officials have traded the blame over the slow
distribution of relief aid.
So far, the federal government has earmarked about $750 million for
infrastructure projects. The state homeland security department, charged with
distributing the money, has given out only about half that. The governor said
the city has been slow to complete the paperwork.
It was that kind of back-and-forth that prompted Ken White and his wife, Kathy,
to give up and move to New York last year.
"We came back a month after the flood and thought about what we could do to stay
and rebuild, but it became apparent to us it would take a long time and be very
difficult," said White, who was director of emergency psychiatry at Charity
Hospital when Katrina hit. "We were appalled by the ineptitude of government on
all levels."
Gregory Hamilton, a longtime resident of eastern New Orleans, said he plans to
stay, but is frustrated, too. "Everybody wants to follow the recovery. Nobody
wants to lead the recovery," he said.
Some frustrations are rooted in the persistent widespread damage as well as the
lack of a comprehensive rebuilding plan.
On many streets, newly rebuilt houses stand amid empty, decaying ones. In many
neighborhoods, there are still heaps of smelly debris and FEMA trailers in front
yards.
"Literally, if you want an
aspirin in those neighborhoods, you have to go across
the parish line or to an unflooded area," said Al Palumbo, a real estate agent.
A $14 billion rebuilding proposal is making its way through city government, and
Nagin has appointed a recovery czar, Ed Blakely. But there is no timetable for
implementation of a master plan, and no assurances the money will be there for
it.
Blakely said he believes it will cost at least three times the $14 billion
estimate to restore the city.
Brian Nolan, a photographer who moved to South Carolina after the city's failed
levees left his home in Lakeview under 11 feet of water, said he did not believe
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' assurances that floodwalls have been improved.
"After the storm, we were all pumped up to build a new house, but we lost that
dream," he said.
Blanco, on a lobbying trip to Washington, said Thursday that she has received
commitments from Democratic leaders that the recovery of the Gulf Coast will be
a "front-burner" issue. Blanco also said that she, the mayor and several parish
leaders have agreed to work together to break the "bureaucratic nightmare."
Demographer Greg Rigamer said that pressure on Road Home and the appointment of
a recovery czar are positive steps, but that city must do more to rebuild
schools, its health care system and housing to keep people here and bring others
back.
"With every passing month," said UNO sociologist Rachel E. Luft, "it's less
likely people will come back."
************************************************** *********************
Government sued over citizenship delays
By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 8, 2007 6:52 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - Eight immigrants who have waited years for their citizenship
applications to clear tougher post-9/11 background checks claim in a lawsuit
filed Thursday that the delays violate their constitutional rights of due
process.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and names the FBI
and the Department of Homeland Security among the defendants. It seeks to
enforce regulations in which the federal government must act on a citizenship
application within 120 days of the applicant's interview.
The eight immigrants cleared traditional criminal background checks and other
requirements only to see their applications bogged down by federal immigration
officials' process of checking names against an FBI database, the plaintiffs'
attorneys said.
"The system is broken, and it's time to fix it," said Maya Harris, executive
director of American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which filed
the lawsuit on behalf of the eight immigrants. Also named as plaintiffs are the
Asian Law Caucus and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco
Bay Area Chapter.
The name checks were adopted before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but
only after the attacks did every application go through the process, said
Christopher Bentley, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services.
The majority of the 35 million background checks the agency runs every year are
cleared within nine months, Bentley said. The others require more research and
can take years, he said.
Calls to the FBI were not immediately returned.
Bentley defended the rigorous background checks as vital to national security.
"The American public expects that as an agency we won't grant a benefit such as
citizenship to someone who is not qualified," he said. "We will not and do not
grant any benefits until all background security clearances have been resolved."
One plaintiff, Sana Jalili of Pakistan, applied for citizenship in December
2003. She gave her fingerprints, passed a criminal background check and
completed the final interview in September 2004.
Jalili, 26, said she was told she would be naturalized in three months, at most.
She's waited almost three years with no conclusion.
"We are continuously told the same message, that my name has gone for a
background check," she said. "But how long does it take to complete a simple
background check?"
Cecillia D. Wang, senior attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, said
a faster approval process would improve national security.
"If there are lawful permanent residents who pose a security risk, the
government should discover that quickly and get to the bottom of any possible
problems," Wang said.
Three other lawsuits are pending around the country asking the government to act
on citizenship applications within 120 days of the last interview.
Immigration officials now conduct name checks before interviews, following the
letter of the law but violating applicants' due process rights, said Sin Yen
Ling, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.
The suit asks for a time limit for name checks and a speedy review of the
plaintiffs' own applications.
************************************************** ***************************
Snow squalls bury upstate New York
2 hours, 38 minutes ago
Friday, February 09, 2007
1:12:20 AM
OSWEGO, N.Y. - While the northern Plains and Northeast shiver in dangerously
cold temperatures, the folks in upstate New York are keeping warm shoveling
snow — lots of snow.
Since Sunday, the small towns of Parish and Mexico have recorded more than 6
feet of snow, and forecasters with the National Weather Service say it isn't
over yet.
The area received a short reprieve Thursday as the squalls shifted south into
Syracuse, where between 4 and 8 inches fell. The lake-effect bands moved back
north in the evening and were expected to strengthen overnight.
"We're just trying to keep up. It's almost an unreal amount," said Mayor Randy
Bateman of Oswego, where 70 inches of snow had fallen by Thursday morning. "We
catch up when it stops, but then it just comes again, even heavier."
Gov. Eliot Spitzer declared a state disaster emergency for the county Thursday,
authorizing all state agencies to help assist municipalities and residents in
the storm-wracked region along eastern Lake Ontario.
Late Thursday the northern parts of Oswego County were accumulating as much as 3
inches per hour, said Dave Sage, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Service in Buffalo. At times, the snow has fallen at a rate of as much as 5
inches an hour.
"I'm sure before morning there's going to be three or four areas that have up to
100 inches (in Oswego County)," Sage said.
Whiteout conditions forced state police to temporarily close Interstate 81
between Central Square and Pulaski, a stretch of about 15 miles. Travel
advisories against unnecessary travel were posted for Oswego and its neighboring
counties. Mexico officials renewed a snow emergency declaration, and many
government offices were closed.
Schools were closed for a fourth day in Oswego and Mexico.
Temperatures in the Northeast inched back up to something closer to normal for
this time of year, but the upper Midwest and northern Plains still awoke to
subzero temperatures Thursday — minus-12 in Minneapolis and 3 below zero in
Chicago.
The bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 20 deaths — five
in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan,
and one each in Wisconsin, New York and Maryland, authorities said.
************************************************** ***************************
Father charged in child's exposure death
By RAMESH SANTANAM,
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 29 minutes ago
PITTSBURGH - A man angry his toddler daughter wouldn't go to bed knocked her
unconscious and left her to die outside in single-digit temperatures, police
said.
The frozen body of Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found Sunday
at an abandoned playground about a 10-minute walk from the family's home. Tiny
footprints in the snow suggest she had gotten up and wandered around before she
died, police said.
Her father, William Lorenzo Page, 23, of Braddock, was arrested Wednesday on
charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports and simple assault. He
has been in custody since Sunday, when he was charged with sexually abusing
another child shortly before Nyia died.
Page, who did not have an attorney at his arraignment Thursday morning, was
jailed without bond.
Page told police he woke up early Saturday and found the girl awake and playing
near a mirror in the hallway, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday
night. He said he got mad when the girl wouldn't go back to bed so he hit her so
hard she hit her head and was unconscious, the complaint said.
Police said Page told them he took the girl outside wrapped in a blanket and
left her, still breathing, beside railroad tracks near a bridge.
Police said a T-shirt, a pair of women's underwear and a Pittsburgh Steelers
"Terrible Towel," all found in Page's basement, appeared to have been stained
with dried blood.
An autopsy determined Nyia died of hypothermia, but the Allegheny County Medical
Examiner ruled the death a homicide because investigators said it was
unreasonable to assume the child had made it alone to the playground, which is
on a wooded knoll. The toddler would have had to have climbed 17 snowy steps to
get there.
Authorities could only guess how long Nyia, wearing only a sweater and a diaper,
could have survived in temperatures that hovered around 2 degrees Saturday
morning.
"Given her size, she would have been rendered incapacitated very quickly,"
Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl E. Williams said Thursday. "She'd
been out so long, when we found her she was frozen."
A witness saw Page enter his house Saturday morning from the direction where his
daughter was found, police said. He was back out on the street about an hour
later, saying he was looking for the girl and telling the witness, "Somebody
took my daughter," according to a criminal complaint.
Nyia's mother told police she last saw the girl after Nyia tried to crawl into
bed with her parents about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The mother told police she put
the youngster back into her own bed in an upstairs room.
Police, emergency crews and bloodhounds searched in 20-degree temperatures for
most of two days before finding the little girl's body.
The sexual abuse charge against Page came as police investigated Nyia's
disappearance.
Police said another child in the house told investigators that sometime
overnight Friday, Page entered a bedroom, covered the child's mouth with one
hand and touched the child's genitals with the other. The child said Page then
left the room, followed by Nyia, police said.
************************************************** ***************************
ADV-NEWS, New Orleans residents are bailing out, Immigrant sues gov't bc of delays, Snow Squalls in NYS, Man kills toddler daughter with winter. 
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