Formaldehyde risks ignored in scramble
CNN Jan 30, 08 1:54 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Democrats on a House committee say the Federal Emergency Management Agency ignored good science in using travel trailers with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde as long-term housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina, CNN reports, adding that FEMA suppressed a report on formaldehyde risks. The emergency agency calls yesterday's accusations "unfounded and false" and "contrary to our mission."
More »
Hundreds of flights canceled as drivers navigate icy roads
Associated Press Jan 19, 08 7:55 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Snow and rain fell on surprised Southerners today, slickening roads and forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights, the AP reports. Some Mississippians saw snow for the first time in 6 years as 5 inches fell in Alabama and experts warned drivers in Georgia to watch for icy roads. Freezing temperatures also hit parts of Louisiana, including New Orleans, which set in motion its freeze plan to shelter the homeless.
More »
'Whiz kid,' 36, pledges ethics, economic reform
Shreveport Times Jan 15, 08 3:50 AM CST
(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 nation's youngest governor in office.
More »
$3.5B to replace schools and firehouses languishing in accounts
USA Today Jan 11, 08 3:20 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Billions of dollars in FEMA aid earmarked for rebuilding infrastructure pulverized by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes have yet to be spent on thousands of important projects such as replacing schools and firehouses, USA Today reports. Out of $4.5 billion in aid to Louisiana and Mississippi, only $1 billion has been spent. Much of the rest is sitting in state accounts until local authorities can get through tangles of local and federal red tape.
More »
It's up slightly from last year
Reuters Dec 27, 07 6:54 PM CST
(Newser)
-
The US population will be 303.2 million on New Year's Day, the Census Bureau says, a 0.9% increase from last year. The nation is projected to add one person every 13 seconds in the new year—a birth every 8 seconds, a death every 11 seconds, and one migrant's arrival every 30 seconds, Reuters reports.
More »
City battles to live down TV show, competes to be movie location
Chicago Tribune Dec 24, 07 1:51 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Dallas has tried for years to disassociate itself from 'Dallas,' the cheesy '80s soap opera that's so iconic that the fictional scheming oil baron JR Ewing is still the city's biggest celebrity—16 years after the show was canceled. So it's with considerable cringing that officials find themselves wooing the producers of the upcoming movie version to film in their city, instead of competitors Florida, Louisiana, and Saudi Arabia.
More »
Her pregnancy spurs legal debate on statutory rape laws
CNN Dec 20, 07 6:13 AM CST
(Newser)
-
The pregnancy of 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears by her 18-year-old boyfriend is sparking renewed debate about the nation's uneven patchwork of statutory rape laws. Teens in some states can be sentenced to jail for having consensual sex with people not much younger than they are. Because prosecution is left to the discretion of a prosecutor, there's "a disturbing disparity in how these laws are enforced," said one expert.
More »
Jamie Lynn Spears in "complete and total shock"
Reuters Dec 19, 07 4:55 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Another Spears may be headed for parenting woes. Britney's kid sister, Jamie Lynn, has announced that she's 12 weeks pregnant. The 16-year-old Louisiana high school student, star of the Nickelodeon show "Zoey 101," met her boyfriend and the father of the baby, Casey Aldridge, at church, Reuters reports. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he," she said.
More »
Hurricane's impact on forests leads to massive CO2 release
Los Angeles Times Nov 16, 07 12:53 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Hurricane Katrina killed 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana, and the die-off is affecting the atmosphere as well as the landscape. Decaying trees will release about 367 million tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the amount released in a whole season of US forest fires, the LA Times reports. "In some areas, it was 100% damage," says one expert.
More »
Six other states can't fund them; issue may be bigger than injection
New York Times Nov 3, 07 7:18 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Judge Hilton Fuller has drawn ire for shelving a Georgia death penalty case, but other states are hitting the same snag: low funds for capital court costs, the New York Times reports. Georgia can’t afford the $1.2 million to defend Brian Nichols, charged with killing four in a 2005 courthouse shooting. Six other states can't afford capital trials, which need defenders to make “extraordinary efforts," the American Bar Association says.
More »
Congress may unite to hand him first override of his presidency
Washington Post Nov 3, 07 2:04 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
President Bush is gearing up for another battle with Congress, but his latest fray could result in the first overriding of one of his vetoes, the Washington Post reports. His rejection yesterday of the water resources bill, popular with Democrats and Republicans, is a gamble because it may endear him to fiscal conservatives but erode his authority on Capitol Hill.
More »
First Indian-American at head of US state
Bloomberg Oct 21, 07 2:13 PM CDT
(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 election. His triumph speaks to the dissatisfaction with Democratic leaders since Katrina, Bloomberg notes.
More »