Drug Dealers and Gangbangers have Reunion in NOLA

This article from the TP site says it all.

I'll excerpt the important parts.

Weekend killings stain the city

Six men found dead in three shootings

Sunday, July 30, 2006

By Gwen Filosa

New Orleans police spent Saturday searching for two killers who gunned down four people the night before on a dead-end street in a gritty corner of Treme. It was the second high body-count homicide within six weeks in a city with just half its pre-Hurricane Katrina population.

Two other unrelated killings, one early Saturday in Gentilly and the other Saturday night just off St. Charles Avenue, brought the city's 24-hour homicide total to six and the total for the year to 78. ....

Police described one suspect as a 5-foot-5 male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, dressed in a white T-shirt and light blue jean shorts. The other was described as a male in a white T-shirt, light blue jean shorts and a red baseball cap. Both were last spotted running north on St. Ann Street. ...

The coroner's office released this description of the Gentilly victim: He was between 30 and 40 years old, 5-feet-10 and 180 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and a light beard. His right eye socket was sunken and his upper front teeth missing. On his right arm was a tattoo of a dancing unicorn, and he had had surgery on his right side to repair a hernia. He wore black jeans and a white shirt. Anyone with information on his identity is asked to call the coroner's office at 658-9660.....

As you read the article there is no mention of race of any of the victims or suspects. There's even an unidentified victim and they give his description except for race. Why? Doesn't TP want to help find the suspects.

One thing is certain the thugs are returning. Will this deter the good folks from coming back? That's a question that has yet to be answered. I don't know if I would bring my family back.

LP is in the Money.

According to this article in the Livingston Parish News we are in the money.

From the article....

Sales tax up 20 percent from 2004-05 fiscal year

By Alice Dowty

LIVINGSTON - Sales tax collections in the parish over the past fiscal year are about $10 million more than the amount collected in 2004-05.

Sales tax revenue jumped after Hurricane Katrina, and has stayed high.

"The vast majority of the 14 entities for whom we collect brought in 20 percent more in the past 12 months in their total collections compared to the same 12 months the year before," said Michael Curtis, director of the School Board's sales tax collection office.

During the 2005-06 fiscal year, $56,338,600 was collected in Livingston Parish, according to Curtis's figures. During the previous fiscal year, total parish sales tax collections amounted to $46,340,100.

The total collected in June (from May sales) was $1,227,800 more than in June 2005. ....


Wow. I guess that means they won't be asking for tax increases any time soon. Sure like that will happen.

TGIF

I normally don't look forward to weekends this much but this week at work was really crummy. We had some inspectors at the office so everyone was hiding, including me. So I was glad this week was over. I was going crazy in my little cubby hole.

I was supposed to cook for everyone this evening as all the kids were going to be home but instead all were out and about. I had planned pan fried catfish smothered in etoufee(or eat-to-fast as they call it) but I guess we'll do that another night.

Why am I up at 12:30 posting this?

Katrina Update

Saw this Katrina update on Instapundit .

Very interesting and what looks like a communications breakdown from all involved. Bureaucracies move slow and when you are all in the CYA game people don't make decisions unless there is a committee. Apparently, no one wanted to believe the worst and were waiting on confirmation from someone they knew and trusted.

The local, state and federal gov't failed not because of the system because certain people failed. Luckily for many the United State Coast Guard started saving people right away. This report from Popular Mechanics lays out a lot of what happened.

Will we be better prepared next time. I certainly hope so.