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President Obama announces plans to expand domestic oil production

Sat, 14 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Jonathan Tilove - May. 14 (News) - President Barack Obama Saturday announced plans to expand domestic oil production, including holding a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico this year and two in 2012, and extending leases in the Gulf that were affected by the drilling moratorium in the wake of the BP oil spill to allow operators more time to meet heightened safety requirements.

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Deepwater drill permit approved off coast of La.

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By David Hammer - Mar. 01 (News) - The federal government on Monday approved the first permit to drill the kind of deepwater oil well that was banned after last year's BP disaster, but it's yet to be seen whether the move will open the gates to the type of aggressive and lucrative exploration the industry has been clamoring for.

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Massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Bob Marshall - Oct. 23 (News Report) - 'Serious problems' for wildlife forecast if the oil gets into coastal marshes Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could

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Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune - Sep. 15 (News Report) - Plaquemines Parish officials have asked state wildlife officials to investigate what they said is a massive fish kill at Bayou Chaland on the west side of the Mississippi River late Friday. Photographs the parish distributed of the area shows an enormous amount of dead fish floating atop the water. The fish kill was reported to the Louisiana Department of... A massive fish kill was reported late Friday in Plaquemines Parish at Bayou Chaland, west of the Mississippi River. Plaquemines Parish officials have asked state wildlife officials to investigate what they said is a massive fish kill at Bayou Chaland on the west side of the Mississippi River late Friday. Photographs the parish distributed of the area shows an enormous amount of dead fish floating atop the water. The fish kill was reported to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries and the cause has not yet been determined, the parish said. The fish were found in an area that has been impacted by the oil from the BP oil spill, the parish said. The dead fish include pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp and freshwater eel, the parish said. Plaquemines Parish governmentThis is a closeup of the fish kill at Bayou Chaland in Plaquemines Parish. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said he has asked Wildlife & Fisheries for a quick determination of the cause. The parish has also requested testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We can't continue to see these fish kills,'' Nungesser said in a news release. "We need some additional tests to find out why these fish are dying in large numbers. If it is low oxygen, we need to identify the cause." A recent fish kill in nearby St. Bernard Parish was attributed to low oxygen levels in the water.

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Fernando del Valle, Tenor Honors Katrina | NOLA.com

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - Aug. 28 (News) -

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After Katrina, New Orleans Cops Were Told to shoot looters

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Sabrina Shankman, Tom Jennings, Brendan McCarthy, Laura Maggi - Aug. 24 (Investigative Report) - In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the department.

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Deepwater Horizon oil plume more than twice all natural seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Mark Schleifstein - Aug. 19 (News Report) - A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute research team found an extensive plume of droplets of oil about four-fifths of a mile below the surface and stretching 22 miles southwest of the Deepwater Horizon well site deep below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico during a 10-day research cruise at the end of June.

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Mississippi River pours as much dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico as BP

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune - Aug. 11 (News Report) - Every day during the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, contractors sprayed an average 140,000 pounds of Corexit dispersant onto oil slicks on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and into the oil being released a mile below.

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Dead zone as big as Massachusetts along coast of Louisiana and Texas, scientists say

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Mark Schleifstein - Aug. 03 (News) - The annual summertime dead zone caused by low oxygen levels in water along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline this year is twice as big as last year's, stretching 7,722 square miles across Louisiana's coast well into Texan waters, scientists with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium announced Monday.

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Prosecutors Charge White Man for Racially Motivated Shooting in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By A.C. Thompson - Jul. 20 (News Report) - Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina, federal prosecutors have charged a white man with federal hate crimes for his role in the racially motivated shooting of three black men in the aftermath of the storm. The five-count indictment accuses Roland Bourgeois of plotting to defend his Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans from "outsiders" including African Americans and shooting and seriously wounding three men who were walking toward a temporary evacuation center.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal signs bills allowing guns in church, changing sex-solicitation penalty

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - Jul. 08 (News Report) - Burns' bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force.

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Objectivity of spill probe panel is questioned

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Bruce Alpert - Jul. 02 (News Report) - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted Wednesday to create a congressional bipartisan commission to investigate the spill, with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and others saying a separate panel is needed because the White House commission has four environmental advocates -- three members and the executive staff director -- but no oil industry representation.

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Experts seek to clarify their views on drilling moratorium

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By David Hammer - Jun. 08 (News) - Members of a panel of experts brought in to advise the Obama administration on how to address offshore drilling safety after the Deepwater Horizon disaster now say Interior Secretary Ken Salazar falsely implied they supported a six-month drilling moratorium they actually oppose. Salazar's May 27 report to President Barack Obama said a panel of seven experts "peer reviewed" his recommendations, which included a six-month moratorium on all ongoing drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet. That prohibition took effect a few days later, but the angry panel members and some others who contributed to the Salazar report said they had only reviewed an earlier version of the Interior secretary's report that suggested a six-month moratorium only on new drilling, and then only in waters deeper than 1,000 feet.

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Frustration mounting over BP delays, lack of progress in Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Tue, 25 May 2010 08:33:58 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - May. 25 -

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Coast Guard should not get too cozy with BP

Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Stephanie Grace - May. 25 (Opinion) - The man Allen said he trusts is the same guy who has claimed the spill is "relatively tiny" in context of the "very big ocean." Hayward also argued that the environmental impact is likely to be "very, very modest" -- a comment that actually drew a well-earned rebuke from Allen himself, who correctly cast it as "potentially catastrophic for this country.''

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Economic impact of Gulf of Mexico oil spill varies by industry

Sun, 09 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Jaquetta White - May. 09 (Special Report) - "It's very difficult," said Dek Terrell, director of the LSU Division of Economic Development and professor of economics. "The real challenge is going to be getting a good measure of the long-term impact. It very much depends on where oil travels and how long it stays over a particular area." Although it seems unlikely, there still are concerns about the even larger impact on the economy if the spill heads west to an area of the Gulf of Mexico populated with more oil rigs and a greater share of the Louisiana fishing community.

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The oil slick's location, where it's moving and what's at risk

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Emmett Mayer III - May. 01 (Special Report) - il containment booms are being spread along Louisiana's coastline to try to corral the oil washing ashore from the sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico. But weather conditions -- wind and rain -- are not conducive to easy containment. The oil spill is threatening wildlife all along the Gulf Coast, too. This graphic explains where the oil slick is, where its moving, and what's at risk.

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Five times as much oil spewing in Gulf of Mexico oil spill as first thought

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Chris Kirkham - Apr. 29 (News Report) - As a sheen of oil moved closer to the Louisiana coast Wednesday, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revised their estimates of the amount of oil that has been leaking from the oil well from 1,000 barrels a day to up to 5,000 barrels a day, or about 210,000 gallons.

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Police guilty to shooting Hurricane Katrina victims,cover-up

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Laura Maggi, Brendan McCarthy - Apr. 08 (News Report) - "I don't think you can listen to that account without being sickened by the raw brutality of the shooting and the craven lawlessness of the cover-up," said U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance after the factual basis was read aloud in the still courtroom by prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein, deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

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William Jefferson sentenced to 13 years in prison

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Jonathan Tilove - Nov. 14 (News Report) - Former Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to serve 13 years in prison for what the lead prosecutor described as "the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress."

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Energy Partners to be delisted from New York Stock Exchange

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Jen DeGregorio - Mar. 25 (News Report) - Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said Energy Partners' predicament is an extreme version of a situation many energy companies are facing in Louisiana and across the nation. Record fuel prices last summer spurred many firms to invest their cash and draw credit to boost production. But commodity prices have since crashed, leaving many of those companies strapped for cash and behind on their loan payments.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal speech on national stage gets woeful reviews

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Jan Moller - Feb. 26 (News Analysis) - While the verdict from observers was quick and brutal, it is equally clear that the speech is unlikely to have long-term repercussions for a candidate widely seen as having presidential ambitions. After all, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton memorably bombed while giving the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

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Economic downturn causes worries for private schools

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Barri Bronston - Jan. 31 (Special Report) - Nationally, private school enrollment is down 120,000 students this school year, compared with last year, according to the federal Department of Education. It puts the total number of students in private school at 6 million, or 11 percent of all elementary and secondary students in the United States. Private education is most common in Louisiana. Before Katrina, the state led the country with 16.6 percent of its students in private schools or home schooling. Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. John the Baptist parishes were in the top 10 counties or parishes in the United States. In the seven-parish New Orleans area, private school enrollment, now at 52,400, has dropped 18 percent over the past five years. The biggest hit came in the Katrina year of 2005-06, when a number of Catholic schools closed and other private schools pared faculty and staff because they had fewer students and less revenue. Since then, the decline has been only slight, something that comes as no surprise to Jim Meza, education dean at the University of New Orleans. "If you look at our history, New Orleans has a particularly strong tradition of Catholic education," he said. "And with many of the independent private schools, most families prioritize this as part of their daily operating budget."

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McCain tackles Obama and Bush in Kenner appearance

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Richard Rainey - Jun. 04 (News Report) - As the polls closed on the two final Democratic primaries Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain painted himself the candidate of change who could reform a lethargic, unresponsive government, a claim his campaign hoped would have added gravitas by his speech's proximity to New Orleans.

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LA voters capture nation's attention

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The New Orleans Times-Picayune - By Ed Anderson - Feb. 09 (News Report) - For the first time in at least a decade, Louisianians will have the chance to vote in a presidential primary that could actually have an effect on the party nominations, especially among the Democrats. Louisiana Democrats will have their say today in a neck-and-neck battle for delegates between New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama... . Only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary and only registered Republicans can vote in the GOP contest. The two parties also have elections for members of their statewide and parish governing boards that must be settled by party-only voters.

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