Kathleen Blanco

(Newser) - A contractor responsible for doling out federal rebuilding money to Katrina victims is seeking another company to collect what may amount to hundreds of millions of dollars from Katrina victims. ICF International claims it overpaid some applicants in a rush to get $11 billion out the door; meanwhile, a third...

(Newser) - Louisiana's first non-white chief executive since Reconstruction—and the first elected Indian-American governor in US history—vowed yesterday in his inauguration speech to clean up the corruption-plagued state. The charismatic Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a Roman-Catholic convert from Hinduism, is a conservative Republican who also becomes, at age 36, the...

(Newser) - Bobby Jindal won the Louisiana gubernatorial race late yesterday, making the 36-year-old Republican congressman the first Indian-American to head a US state—and the nation's youngest governor. In a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one, Jindal won 54% of the vote, eliminating the need for a runoff...

(Newser) - If Hillary Clinton is elected president next year, she could be deilvering her State of the Union before a dwindling number of women, the Journal reports. Many female governors and congresswomen face either tough re-election campaigns or term-limit boundaries in 2008, and after a surge in the early 1990s, the...