So, four months from now on March 1st of 2012, I am finally out of the Great White North and heading back to what I thought might be New Orleans. Would certainly make sense with all the writing I do on this site that this town is where my interests lie, and it is, but the damned economy…here’s the thing that keeps throwing rocks in … Continue reading Be back Monday…the trouble with the (personal) economy…
Hell, even GW Bush is impressed with how far to the right you managed to push budget negotiations… you know, to help the people you uh, you promised to help? Hello… So, I might as well address this to the highest ranking of you, though I’m not so sure that’s something to be proud of these days…in fact, from where I sit it’s something to … Continue reading An open letter to the President, and both the Democratic and Republican Parties…
Feinberg testified thursday at a hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources that new rules will be created to make payouts more generous for the Gulf Coast shrimpers suffering through this, and possibly future terrible seasons. “I think we’ve got to do better for the shrimpers,” Feinberg said. It was a rare concession from Feinberg, that perhaps things aren’t going as swimmingly in the Gulf as the GCCF … Continue reading Feinberg testifies in DC, but shrimpers skeptical…
…running away? …especially when they can’t control who will be in the audience? …especially when many in that audience think Eric Cantor and the GOP response form a large part of the overall problem, championing many policies that cause much of the afore-mentioned economic inequality? Okay then, glad we got that settled. Eric Cantor and the GOP’s official response to issues raised by the Occupy Protests is as follows: gulp … Continue reading So the GOP response to economic inequality is…
On Wednesday, Ken Feinberg attended a meeting in Jefferson Parish where local fishermen, oystermen, shrimpers and crabbers weren’t as celebratory of his efforts with the GCCF as the law students were when he recently spoke in Ireland. Harlon Pearce, owner of LA Fish & Seafood asked, “How do we go out and market this product, when we’re worried about having a product to market?” This is becoming … Continue reading Feinberg back in Jefferson Parish…
Ahem…for reasons of disclosure, let me start out by saying I am a social worker…I am a social worker but I am also not stupid. I’ve worked in some social programs in my day that were, shall we just say, not cost-effective. However, let me also say that those days were a long time ago. Things have changed in my field and now pretty much … Continue reading And round and round we go…NOPD windfalls…
It’s got to be hard to be a shrimper. I know I certainly don’t envy anyone who makes their living by what they catch from Gulf waters, be they shrimpers or fishers or whoever, because things don’t seem to be getting much better. The catch, especially the shrimp catch is way off, with some shrimpers estimating their catch to be off by 80%. In one article I read, a … Continue reading More agendas than shrimp in the Gulf…
A new study published online yesterday reports the Food and Drug Administration vastly underestimated the cancer risk from seafood when the agency allowed commercial fishing in the Gulf to resume. Miriam Rotkin-Ellman and Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council authored the study where they found that by using flawed assumptions and outdated risk assessment methods, the FDA allowed up to 10,000 times too much … Continue reading New study reports FDA underestimated cancer risk from Gulf seafood…
So, when the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement hit British Petroleum and their contractors with 15 “incidents of non-compliance,” BP expressed their hopes that now, finally, Transocean and Halliburton would admit responsibility, quit their complaining and put in the effort necessary to join BP in their current “safety first” environment. “BP said it has taken steps to enhance safety and the sanctions show that its … Continue reading BP: encouraging the responsibility of others…
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 