Interview with Frank Morales, writer & activist, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris

A panel discussion which took place on December 12th at St. Dominic Catholic School in Lakeview. LSU Hurricane Center scientist Ivor van Heerden, on what a comprehensive coastal protection plan should contain, including both coastal restoration projects and stronger levee systems. 9:30, 4.5 mb, 64 kbps.

Malik Rahim on Democracy Now Speaking about Potential Woodlands Eviction.

Hundreds Face Eviction in New Orleans

Residents of the C.J. Peete Public Housing Development, Katrina survivors one and all, will reoccupy their homes in the complex 4:30 pm Tuesday.

The reoccupation of the C. J. Peete Development finds its legal justification in the United Nations Guidelines On Internally Displaced Persons to which the United States government is bound by law. The failure of the Housing Authority Of New Orleans to respect the right of return of public housing residents compels C.J. Peete residents to reoccupy their homes without the assistance of the housing authority. This action will, in fact, mark the beginning of the reopening of the C.J. Peete Development. It will also help give hope to the tens of thousands of New Orleanians from public housing and section 8 rentals now in exile that the day of return for all of them is drawing closer.

(By Friends and Families of Lousiana's Incarcerated Children) If there was ever any doubt that the criminal justice system would be used to keep Black New Orleanians from returning, the last few months have eliminated the last of it. With 300 National Guardsman called in to patrol (with M-16s which are “locked and loaded”) the empty streets of the neighborhoods where the lack of infrastructure has slowed efforts to rebuild, the NOPD has been able to turn its attention to “protecting” the neighborhoods that have been rebuilt. By consistently profiling, harassing and arresting poor people of color, NOPD are now making over 140 arrests per week. The vast majority of these arrests are for minor violations, including spitting on a sidewalk. The kinds of charges being put on people – resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, battery on a police officer - speak more to the tension between NOPD and community than to public safety.

The rise in NOPD arrests occurs at a moment when the Orleans Parish Prison is becoming made increasingly dangerous by its overcrowding and lack of adequate health care. Harsh criticism from national media and lawyers of Sheriff Gusman’s operation of OPP has not stopped him from opening new “temporary” beds at breakneck speed and sending hundreds of prisoners up to the state penitentiary in Angola to try and keep up with the new arrests.