I've got to get back into the hang of doing this.
Audubon will start training volunteers to work for the Audubon Volunteer Response Center Monday, June 7th, for oil spill purposes on the Mississippi coast.
Good God, Armstrong Park is already fucked up and it (still) hasn't even opened yet.
The EPA has finally ruled that formaldehyde causes cancer. Funny how these types of admissions are always too late for the people who are suffering and dying. A couple of years ago when people started complaining about how their perfectly healthy 50-something year old mother started having nosebleeds and migraines, and their kid brother all of a sudden started having serious asthma attacks, and their wife had died within 2 months of being diagnosed with cancer, they were just being ridiculous, exaggerating a non-problem, making ignorant assumptions about something they knew nothing about.
I went to one of those FEMA formaldehyde meetings, which were basically meant to tell people that there was nothing to worry about, but the residents there were too smart to buy that. But no one will ever say that those people were right because most of them were poor, and many of them Black, and if you're poor and/or Black, you could claim that this city is hot as hell in the middle of August, and you'd still be wrong. I read a lot of this blog when people started to publicly complain about the trailers, there's a ton of information and testimonials there.
Hang on for the ride. *Sigh*. More specifically, 18 named storms and 10 hurricanes. This does not help with the bad feelings I'm having about this year's hurricane season. I need renter's insurance and a driver's license, stat.
I think I'm done depressing myself now. Until tomorrow!
Showing posts with label FEMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FEMA. Show all posts
6.07.2010
9.27.2009
News Briefs: Target Takes Food Stamps, A SDT Star is Born, 1 Day a Week Trash Pick-up, Sweet Valley High Movie, FEMA Trailer Suit Loss
Target is now accepting food stamps. Finally. You know, seeing as they are Walmart's biggest competitor, you'd think that the second Walmart started accepting food stamps, they would have done the same.
Sidney D. Torres and his business will star in a new reality show on TLC based around SDT, him, and his family. Well, at least TLC does realer reality than, say, VH1.
Stacey Head thinks that twice-a-week trash pick-up is a luxury that New Orleans can't afford. Um, I'm pretty sure that everywhere else that I've lived has had twice-a-week pick-up, and I don't really see how it is a luxury. This city already has a critter problem, and in some neighborhoods it appears that twice-a-week pick-up is not often enough, so I really hope that this is not a suggestion that gains traction. If it were easier (or free) to recycle then yeah; now that I've started recycling I only have to take my trash out once-a-week. But there are people less fortunate than I who can't even afford $10 a month - or have way too many family members to be able to keep their recycling for two weeks at a time.
In movie news that hearkens back my days as an angry teenager (that only read about happy teenagers), Diablo Cody will be adapting the Sweet Valley High book series for the big screen. I'm never a fan of anything that is too popular, so I'm a little annoyed that Ms. Cody is the hip new writer that everyone wants to write or adapt x y and z, but she may be able to take the saccharine out of SVH for today's more cynical audiences. I never made it through the whole series, but I recall my favorite plotline being the evil twins that looked exactly like blond-haired, blue-eyed Elizabeth and Jessica except they had gray eyes and black hair. Yeah, I'd like SVH to be a less "High School Musical", more Heathers.
And the first FEMA trailer lawsuit has been lost. I wonder if it would have been better to choose a case a little more cut and dry. I mean, how do you prove that your kid's asthma got worse due to the trailer, instead of naturally? I know there must be people out there who were perfectly healthy before moving into the FEMA trailers, and got extremely sick afterwards.
Sidney D. Torres and his business will star in a new reality show on TLC based around SDT, him, and his family. Well, at least TLC does realer reality than, say, VH1.
Stacey Head thinks that twice-a-week trash pick-up is a luxury that New Orleans can't afford. Um, I'm pretty sure that everywhere else that I've lived has had twice-a-week pick-up, and I don't really see how it is a luxury. This city already has a critter problem, and in some neighborhoods it appears that twice-a-week pick-up is not often enough, so I really hope that this is not a suggestion that gains traction. If it were easier (or free) to recycle then yeah; now that I've started recycling I only have to take my trash out once-a-week. But there are people less fortunate than I who can't even afford $10 a month - or have way too many family members to be able to keep their recycling for two weeks at a time.
In movie news that hearkens back my days as an angry teenager (that only read about happy teenagers), Diablo Cody will be adapting the Sweet Valley High book series for the big screen. I'm never a fan of anything that is too popular, so I'm a little annoyed that Ms. Cody is the hip new writer that everyone wants to write or adapt x y and z, but she may be able to take the saccharine out of SVH for today's more cynical audiences. I never made it through the whole series, but I recall my favorite plotline being the evil twins that looked exactly like blond-haired, blue-eyed Elizabeth and Jessica except they had gray eyes and black hair. Yeah, I'd like SVH to be a less "High School Musical", more Heathers.
And the first FEMA trailer lawsuit has been lost. I wonder if it would have been better to choose a case a little more cut and dry. I mean, how do you prove that your kid's asthma got worse due to the trailer, instead of naturally? I know there must be people out there who were perfectly healthy before moving into the FEMA trailers, and got extremely sick afterwards.
7.25.2009
News Briefs: Jax Square Artists Get Screwed, More Email Stuff, RSD Not Ready to Rethink Everything, FEMA is Slow?, Latino Workers Finally Get Paid
This sucks, not just for the artists, but for people like me who want to support them and buy good local art, but at an affordable price.
Tracie Washington faces the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board over the ongoing email snafu.
The children with Rethink went before RSD administrators to discuss, among other things, removing metal detectors from their schools. When we let our kids get treated like criminals straight out of the womb, how can we expect them to become anything but?
The Homeland Security Inspector General reported that FEMA took too long to react to complaints about formaldehyde in the trailers that they gave to Katrina victims. That stuff is serious, I've met several people who got sick from living in these trailers, but couldn't afford to live somewhere else.
Latino workers settle lawsuit against Audubon Communities Management for wage theft. This issue is something that the organization that I used to work with dealt with. There were many other companies committing wage theft, forcing workers to stay in gutted houses, trading or "selling" workers to other companies, tricking them into coming here anyway by telling them that t hey will make a lot of money, etc. to the point where we were calling it the new slavery. I don't think that they amount that they got was at all what they deserved, either.
Tracie Washington faces the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board over the ongoing email snafu.
The children with Rethink went before RSD administrators to discuss, among other things, removing metal detectors from their schools. When we let our kids get treated like criminals straight out of the womb, how can we expect them to become anything but?
The Homeland Security Inspector General reported that FEMA took too long to react to complaints about formaldehyde in the trailers that they gave to Katrina victims. That stuff is serious, I've met several people who got sick from living in these trailers, but couldn't afford to live somewhere else.
Latino workers settle lawsuit against Audubon Communities Management for wage theft. This issue is something that the organization that I used to work with dealt with. There were many other companies committing wage theft, forcing workers to stay in gutted houses, trading or "selling" workers to other companies, tricking them into coming here anyway by telling them that t hey will make a lot of money, etc. to the point where we were calling it the new slavery. I don't think that they amount that they got was at all what they deserved, either.
5.13.2009
News Briefs
Pregnant (Again) and Poor
This op-ed by Nicholas Kristof is about a woman in Haiti who, at 30, has ten children that she cannot afford to take care of. I'll admit, my first reaction upon reading the description of the article was "she needs to stop fucking". It always saddens me to hear about children who are unwanted and poorly cared for, which is why I'm devoutly pro-choice. But after reading the article, I can see how she ended up in the situation that she's in, and find it depressing that despite the US and Haiti both being countries that oppress women, at least here she would have had a better chance finding contraception that agreed with her.
FEMA Won't Pay for Charity
FEMA will not pay the $492 million needed to replace Charity Hospital. They believe that Katrina was only responsible for $150 million worth of damage. I haven't really kept up with this fight over Charity Hospital. I think FEMA sucks in general, but from what I've heard only the first few floors of Charity were flooded. This leads me to believe that, aside from blown out windows and the typical hurricane damage, much of what needs to be repaired now is because the city left the building to sit for almost four years without doing any work on it. Doing something like that will increase the cost of repair, just like it has with the homes here that have been left to rot.
Tracie Washington Can Post City Council's Emails Online
I'm curious to see what's in them. I know Tracie Washington. The Louisiana Justice Institute did a lot of legal work with the organization that I used to work with, most notably for the fight to keep public housing open. I haven't worked closely with her, but I know enough not to trust her. I always got the feeling that the poor people who we worked with were distasteful to her. She's claiming that this is about transparency, but I think that this is more about projecting the image of "change" and "honesty" so she can capitalize on Obama's mantra and run for mayor, city council, or some other political position. Also, it's about making the white people on the council (at least one of whom may be running for mayor) look bad.
ETA: Spoke too soon, the state Supreme Court has now blocked her attempts to release City Council emails.
ETA 2.0: Uh oh, they released some of Stacy Head's emails anyway. Since I can't stand that bitch, here they are.
ETA 3.0 This keeps getting better. 3 local stations have received discs containing various emails. I've got to admire the fight in Tracie; I thought she would have backed down by now.
This op-ed by Nicholas Kristof is about a woman in Haiti who, at 30, has ten children that she cannot afford to take care of. I'll admit, my first reaction upon reading the description of the article was "she needs to stop fucking". It always saddens me to hear about children who are unwanted and poorly cared for, which is why I'm devoutly pro-choice. But after reading the article, I can see how she ended up in the situation that she's in, and find it depressing that despite the US and Haiti both being countries that oppress women, at least here she would have had a better chance finding contraception that agreed with her.
FEMA Won't Pay for Charity
FEMA will not pay the $492 million needed to replace Charity Hospital. They believe that Katrina was only responsible for $150 million worth of damage. I haven't really kept up with this fight over Charity Hospital. I think FEMA sucks in general, but from what I've heard only the first few floors of Charity were flooded. This leads me to believe that, aside from blown out windows and the typical hurricane damage, much of what needs to be repaired now is because the city left the building to sit for almost four years without doing any work on it. Doing something like that will increase the cost of repair, just like it has with the homes here that have been left to rot.
Tracie Washington Can Post City Council's Emails Online
I'm curious to see what's in them. I know Tracie Washington. The Louisiana Justice Institute did a lot of legal work with the organization that I used to work with, most notably for the fight to keep public housing open. I haven't worked closely with her, but I know enough not to trust her. I always got the feeling that the poor people who we worked with were distasteful to her. She's claiming that this is about transparency, but I think that this is more about projecting the image of "change" and "honesty" so she can capitalize on Obama's mantra and run for mayor, city council, or some other political position. Also, it's about making the white people on the council (at least one of whom may be running for mayor) look bad.
ETA: Spoke too soon, the state Supreme Court has now blocked her attempts to release City Council emails.
ETA 2.0: Uh oh, they released some of Stacy Head's emails anyway. Since I can't stand that bitch, here they are.
ETA 3.0 This keeps getting better. 3 local stations have received discs containing various emails. I've got to admire the fight in Tracie; I thought she would have backed down by now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)