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.