Project Katrina

I’ve written about how a doctor and at least two nurses, as the flood water rose in New Orleans, took it upon themselves to kill four patients by giving them a lethal drug cocktail. Those previous posts dating back months and month are located here and here. Well the story is starting to get some main stream media attention as the court case starts. CNN reports:

According to the court document, the morphine was paired with midazolam hydrochloride, known by its brand name Versed. Both drugs are central nervous system depressants. Taken together, Foti said, they become “a lethal cocktail that guarantees that you die.”

The doctor and nurses were taken into custody late Monday, following a 10-month investigation that continues. Each was accused of four counts of being a principal to second-degree murder and released on $100,000 bond. The case will be referred to the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office for prosecution, Foti said.

Sources have told CNN the conditions at the hospital were dire, and the killings allegedly were carried out to speed evacuation. Foti would not discuss possible motives on Tuesday. “We feel that they abused their rights as medical practitioners,” was all he would say.

I hope this story gets even more play in the media. I think it goes to the heart of so much that is wrong with happened. And I am betting the court documents will show many things we’re not aware of even almost a year after Katrina hit.

I’ve ask myself this question a lot while working on this blog, do I still lived in the United States. Yesterday the Bush administration conceded mistakes in the government’s initial response to Katrina but strongly disputed allegations by more then 142 nongovernmental organizations that the response reflected governmental racism.

These facts came to light because the Bush Administration submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee their responses to their concerns and questions. How the hell could this country sink so low we have to actually prove to the UN that we’re not human right violators.

This story in USA Today is very good news. For New Orleans to rebuild to anything like its former self it needs to offer citizens basic service. Roads, water, power, and mail. Kind of hard to run a small business or even pay a water or power bill if you can’t get mail.

Roosevelt Johnson opened the door to a big surprise Monday morning. The mailman. “Mail in the Lower 9th Ward — ain’t that something,” said Johnson, 46, who hasn’t seen a mailman around the neighborhood since Hurricane Katrina deluged the city 11 months ago. “This means a lot,” he said, shaking mail carrier Wayne Treaudo’s hand.

The rest of America takes the mail for granted. But here in the Lower 9th Ward, where Katrina’s flooding reached rooftops and pushed houses off foundations, Treaudo’s first round of mail delivery carried some hope for normalcy in a place where normal is hard to come by.

The Lower 9th Ward, once home to about 20,000, is one of the last New Orleans neighborhoods where basic services remain scarce. It’s the only neighborhood in the city where electricity and gas services have not been fully restored. Government-issue travel trailers began showing up just last month.

The story goes on to explain that only about 1,000 people have returned to the lower 9th Ward and much of the area is still closed, with no power or drinkable water. But for those that are brave and strong enough to return they ought to at least be able to get their darn mail.

New Orleans, for at least as long as I can recall, has had a crime problems, Murders, drugs, and robbery. So it is not surprising that the Times-Picayune is reporting that a survey of residents and those still displaced rate preventing crime as the most important issue. A survey of 1,073 by Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine found the following were the most important issues, rated on a scale of 1 to 5:

• Low Crime Rate (4.72)
• Good Street Lighting (4.68)
• No Litter (4.64)
• Good Schools (4.40)
• Not Much Noise (4.37)
• Sidewalks & Crosswalks (4.25)
• Trees & Other Greenery (4.21)
• Parks & Playgrounds (4.15)
• Grocery Stores (4.11)
• Affordable Housing (4)

I found some of these stats to be a little strange, but the news article does indicate, " Responses from white and black residents were similar on most counts, with both groups giving top rankings to a low crime rate, good street lighting and an absence of litter. But there were a few differences. Only black respondents placed affordable housing and health clinics among the 10 traits they most desire, while only white respondents put houses with porches on their top 10 list."

If anybody knows where I can view the full report so I can see the raw date please leave a comment.

These numbers from USA Today just couldn’t get any more bleak:

• 450,000 New Orleans population, pre-Katrina.

• 200,000 New Orleans population now.
• 134,000 Homes damaged or destroyed.
• 33,778 Post-Katrina housing permits.
• 2,500 City-owned blighted or abandoned houses available to developers.

A new GAO report finds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster assistance program made up to $1.4 billion in improper payments after Hurricane Katrina.

House Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in an interview Tuesday that he is drafting legislation that would provide better fraud prevention and verification controls in FEMA’s individual and household disaster assistance program.

"Based on our statistical sample, we are 95 percent confident that the range of improper and potentially fraudulent payments is from $600 million to $1.4 billion," Government Accountability Office investigators said in a new report. It will be released Wednesday at a hearing McCaul called to examine waste and fraud in the hurricane recovery effort.

Government Accountability Office says FEMA debit cards were used for:

• An all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
• Five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
• Adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
• Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in a San Antonio Hooters.

Overall the report found:

• Congressional investigators found numerous examples of waste and abuse and say nearly 16 percent of monies paid out was unwarranted.
• GAO is confident that improper and potentially fraudulent payments would total up to $1.4 billion.
• Identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after Katrina and Rita.

Peoples heads need to roll and people need to go to jail.