Florida Charter Schools Failing Disabled Students

Tres Whitlock is stuck in a public school where he feels ignored. He wants out.

The 17-year-old would-be video game designer researched his options online and found his perfect match – Pivot Charter School. "It's computer-based and I think I will do better," he says. But when Whitlock tried to enroll in the school, he found a series of barriers in his way.

The reason? He has cerebral palsy, and school officials say they don't have anyone to take Whitlock to the bathroom.

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City Council gets a bit more money to play with in 2012 budget

New Orleans City Council members hoping to add money for various departments when they adopt the city's 2012 budget Thursday got some good news today when the city's Revenue Estimating Conference decided to increase its 2012 revenue forecast by $1.8 million. That means the council can add the same amount to the $494.9 million general-fund operating budget that Mayor Mitch Landrieu proposed in October.

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All RSD students will be assigned through central office, ending fractured system

Working to fulfill a promise made months ago, the Recovery School District is taking over enrollment for each of its 50 charter schools in New Orleans. That means the officials running the independent schools will no longer have sole discretion in determining which students come to their schools.

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Mayor Landrieu, HUD Officials and Homeless Services Working Group Release 10-year plan to end homelessness in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, LA— In June, Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed an executive order establishing the Homeless Services Working Group- an official Mayoral Advisory Committee - tasked with developing a strategic master plan to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness in New Orleans. Today, Mayor Landrieu, along with the Working Group, and officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), unveiled the strategic plan.

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Jefferson Parish teachers union takes complaints with School Board to the public

As tensions mount between the Jefferson Parish School Board and the teachers union, union officials have launched a public relations campaign that includes advertising, television appearances and a petition drive.

The drive by the Jefferson Federation of Teachers comes as contract negotiations approach in the spring and represents its latest move to gain a voice in the reforms being advanced by the School Board and interim Superintendent James Meza.

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City Chosen for Competitive Code for America Technology Fellowship Program

Today, Code for America announced that the City of New Orleans has been selected as one of eight cities for its 2012 national fellowship program. Fellows will work on a project that includes developing a “Batch 311 Reporting System” where neighborhoods can submit lists of complaints and get back results that show the status of each, sending those that are not already being worked to the appropriate department to fix the problem.

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BESE race for 2nd District seat is getting ugly

The contest for the 2nd District seat on the state board of education has shifted in two important ways since the first round of voting last month: It has gotten a lot more personal, and the focus of the campaigning has shifted to the River Parishes.Even before the Oct. 22 primary, incumbent Louella Givens, a New Orleans lawyer, found herself the subject of embarrassing personal attacks over a drunken driving arrest and an unpaid IRS bill.
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NC School Board Race Had National Implications

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Intense national political forces were focused on a local school board runoff this week in North Carolina's capital as voters replaced tea party conservatives in a race that capped an acrimonious dispute over student busing and diversity in one of the country's largest school districts.

The campaign featured elements more commonly seen in races for higher offices: Big money from outside interest groups, opposition research and the close attention of the U.S. education secretary.

The contest in Wake County illustrated how the money and ideological battles that have riven Washington are filtering down to local elections, said David McLennan, a political science professor at William Peace University in Raleigh.

"It's sort of a trend that we're starting to see a lot more of in general," McLennan said. "You're seeing a lot more concerted efforts by both liberal and conservative groups to target their money on issues that they find important."

The battle in Raleigh was tied to busing.

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Stage set for parish to sue BP

The St. Tammany Parish Council has agreed to sue BP and any other parties responsible for damages related to last April's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The council voted unanimously, with Chris Canulette and Ken Burkhalter absent, to file the lawsuit late Thursday night following an executive session with Kelly Rabalais, legal counsel to President Kevin Davis, council administrator Mike Sevante said.

Rabalais told the council that the parish primarily wants to preserve its right to sue for damages related to the spill that it could incur in the future, Sevante said. Should the parish fail to file suit before the one-year anniversary of the spill -- April 20 -- it could forfeit its right to do so later, Sevante said.

Rabalais deferred comment Friday afternoon to Suzanne Parsons Stymiest, the parish's spokeswoman. Stymiest said the parish has directed its outside counsel -- Walter Leger Jr. and Tom Thornhill -- to litigate the matter as necessary to protect St. Tammany Parish and its people.

She noted that the suit likely would be consolidated with hundreds of other lawsuits filed in the wake of the spill as part of the multidistrict litigation to be heard in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

The suit will attempt to assess the economic issues related to the spill, such as the cleanup costs and the damage to the parish, as well as any health issues, particularly those involving mental health, Stymiest said.

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Jindal, congressmen call for delay of remap

With just days remaining in the Legislature's post-census redistricting session, five Republican members of Louisiana's congressional delegation and Gov. Bobby Jindal are calling for state lawmakers to postpone drawing new U.S. House districts until 2012.

The request for postponement first became public Saturday in a letter from the congressmen to the governor. Jindal's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, said the governor also supports waiting until next year.

The development increases the likelihood that the Legislature will conclude the session, which by law must end by Wednesday, without reaching a resolution on how to realign the state's current seven congressional districts into six.

The letter also ratchets up the tensions in a process already fraught with competing regional, party, racial and incumbent interests, and featuring rare public spats among the state's GOP congressmen, who often walk lockstep on questions of policy.

The five congressmen -- Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman; Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge; John Fleming, R-Minden; Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia; and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson -- did not mention in their letter the increasingly acrimonious debate over how to redraw the district boundaries.

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Will redistricting be postponed?

BATON ROUGE — With less than 72 hours remaining in the Legislature’s special redistricting session, five of the state’s seven congressmen have asked the governor and state lawmakers to give up on attempts to redraw Louisiana’s congressional boundaries for at least a year.

Now is not the time to rush through a congressional plan with so many fiscal issues waiting to be addressed,” the congressmen wrote in the letter dated Friday and obtained by The Courier and Daily Comet. “We also feel that the people of Louisiana should have more time to think about their future and their needs and how those needs could be affected by congressional redistricting.”

Terrebonne and Lafourche’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, signed the letter, along with U.S. Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, and John Fleming, R-Minden. State lawmakers will weigh the request when they reconvene Monday, the Associated Press reported.


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NPN hosts School Governance Forum with OPEN

NPN co-hosted its second monthly community forum in 2011 with the Orleans Public Education Network (OPEN) on Wednesday, February 23^rd from 6-8 pm at Wilson Elementary School in the Broadmoor Neighborhood. Through NPN and OPEN community outreach and organizing, community members involved with four schools in the midst of transition were asked to present their stories to the public. The four schools were Colton Middle School on St. Claude Ave., Frantz Elementary in the Bunny Friend neighborhood, Priestley High School in the Carrollton area, and Sarah T. Reed High School in New Orleans East.

For more information read "2011 School Governance Forum Notes"

New Orleans' officials to update blight-fighting efforts Thursday morning

To track their progress toward Mayor Mitch Landrieu's goal of ridding New Orleans of 10,000 nuisance properties by 2014, top city officials on Thursday will hold another biweekly BlightStat session.

Officials will gather at 8 a.m. in the 9th floor conference room at 1340 Poydras St. The public is welcome to attend.

Like ComStat sessions held by the Police Department, BlightStat meetings are internal working meetings. City officials generally take turns reviewing reams of blight statistics, from complaints logged to properties set for sheriff's sale.

 They also field residents' comments and questions, though they try not to veer too from the prepared agenda. 

State law hampers reach of Jefferson Parish inspector general, attorney general concludes

Despite public pleas for greater oversight of government agencies, an opinion by Attorney General Buddy Caldwell concludes that the powers of Jefferson Parish's new inspector general should not extend beyond oversight of the parish government itself.

To do so would violate the state Constitution, according to the opinion.

That argument, sent Wednesday to Parish President John Young, means that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, School Board, coroner, district attorney, clerk of court and the parish's six incorporated municipalities are excluded from the inspector general's reach.

 "That's pretty much what we expected," Parish Attorney Deborah Foshee said. "The rationale is these are independent bodies."

Still, it contradicts the recommendations of a review committee formed last year to establish guidelines for creating an inspector general's office.

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U.S. approves first deepwater permit since oil spill

The U.S. has approved the first deep-water drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since last year's massive oil spill.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement says the permit is to continue work on a well about 70 miles southeast of Venice, La.

Noble Energy Inc. is the operator of the well. The company started drilling on the well four days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Drilling activity was suspended on June 12 when the U.S. placed a moratorium on deep-water exploration.

Disagreements emerge over La. court redistricting

When lawmakers gather next month to redraw Louisiana's political district lines, maps for the Louisiana Supreme Court and state appeals courts may be left on the cutting room floor.

Lawmakers are required to redraw the boundary lines of congressional, legislative, Public Service Commission and education board districts when new census figures are released. There's no such requirement about the courts, even though they were included in the special session agenda.

House and Senate leaders are split on the matter.


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Integrated Resource Planning Overview

We all want New Orleans to become a green, sustainable, and more energy efficient city at the lowest cost to its residents. Luckily, the opportunity to make some drastic positive changes is before the City Council right now. This opportunity is in the form of Entergy New Orleans' Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)

What is an IRP?
An Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is document created by a utility for its regulators that lays out how the utility plans to provide power to its ratepayers in the coming years. It addresses both “demand-side” and “supply-side” options. In an IRP, a utility must assess its long-term power generation resources, and include room for new options. Entergy New Orleans (ENO) submitted its IRP in January 2011 to the City Council, and the Utility Committee is currently reviewing it. If accepted, the process will repeat every three years to ensure that goals are met and the IRP evolves to include new technologies and best practices.

Why is the IRP important to you? Read on to learn more about this pressing issue.