LA: More Oil For The River

Local government agencies got another scare Wednesday as 2,500 gallons of oil still inside a wrecked barge near the Crescent City Connection bubbled to the surface, halting river traffic through New Orleans for six hours and forcing officials in three parishes to again stop drawing water from the Mississippi River.

Although shipping and water intake resumed by late afternoon, Coast Guard officials did not rule out the possibility of additional fuel leaks in upcoming days as the barge remains in the river, prompting criticism from port officials.

Officials attributed Wednesday’s new leak to a three-foot drop in the river in the past week, which allowed the broken barge to shift and disrupt the oil still inside. Removing the barge from the river is still days away, according to the Coast Guard, as divers inspecting the barge have run into setbacks because of strong currents near the river bottom.

The slow salvage process has drawn criticism from some local officials, including the head of the Port of New Orleans, who called it “the slowest process I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Meanwhile, residents in Algiers, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes again were questioning the safety of their drinking water after the leak forced officials to temporarily close intake systems.

Robert Jackson of the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board said the department performed in-house tests and found no contaminants in the water samples. The department has put out its own protective booms in addition to the ones provided by cleanup crews.

Gulf South: Better Days Are Coming?

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act, signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday, may have help jump-start another post-Katrina building boom on the Coast.

The law extends the deadline for developers to start building rental homes and commercial projects to quality for GO Zone tax benefits. This could mean an additional $1.1 billion in tax relief, estimates John Hairston, president of Hancock Bank.

It also gives first time home buyers a $7,500 tax credit to purchase these homes.

The incentive allows a developer to accelerate 50 percent of the total depreciation for the project in the first year. For example, the standard depreciation for an apartment complex or shopping center might be over 29 years. The GO Zone lets them to take half of the total depreciation plus the regular depreciation in the first year.

LA: More River Oil Problems

Commerce resumed Tuesday along the Mississippi River six days after an oil spill halted marine traffic, but more oil discovered near the mouth of the river could again complicate navigation by the end of the week.

Dredging operations meant to maintain navigational channels at the river’s juncture with the Gulf of Mexico have ceased until further notice after the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed Tuesday that oil had mixed with river sediments. The discovery came as a surprise to environmental officials, who thought most of the oil had been contained upriver.

Dredging is crucial for the shipping industry, which needs machinery to clear the gateway to the river, a channel called Southwest Pass, when the river is high. But disposing of the tainted mud in an environmentally sensitive way presents new logistical problems for the corps.

MS: Not In My Backyard

Antiquated notions about affordable housing have prompted Back Bay Mission to launch a public awareness campaign, “Warm Welcome Gulf Coast: Where Hospitality is More Than a Slogan.”

Community leaders say attitudes need to change or the economy will suffer. Blue-collar and tourist industries worry they won’t be able to meet demand, or grow, unless their workers can find affordable homes, defined as costing no more than 30 percent of a family’s income.

The not-in-my-backyard attitude often encountered with affordable housing has hurt the Coast post-Katrina, Wittmann and others believe. The federal government has offered tax incentives to spur development of new affordable housing, but Wittmann said that 850 units, representing nine developments, have been rejected by local government boards.

One important aspect of the campaign will be to bring out supporters when local boards consider affordable housing developments. In the past, government bodies have heard mainly from opponents.

AL: 4 Day Work Week In The Air

MS is considering and now AL, must be something in the air.

Baldwin County employees could be placed on four-day workweeks in as little as two months, according to County Commission Chairman Frank Burt Jr.

But Mobile Mayor Sam Jones said he is not interested in such a switch.

“That might work for a profit-driven business, but not a service-driven business,” Jones said. “People aren’t going to stop calling on Friday.”

Burt said he favors a plan in which some employees would work Monday through Thursday and others Tuesday through Friday. In both cases, he said, offices could stay open longer, as employees work from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a 30-minute lunch.

But he said that he believes it has enough support to gain County Commission approval. Burt said he hopes to bring a proposal before the commission in September and start the new schedules with the new fiscal year, Oct. 1.

LA: Energy Policy Debate

Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives — four Democrats and four Republicans — will hold a debate on a national energy policy today at 11 a.m. at Tulane University.

The session, in the Kendall Cram Lecture Hall, Room 213, of the Lavin-Bernick Center, will be free and open to the public.

The scheduled participants are Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; Jay Inslee, D-Wash.; Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.; Hilda Solis, D-Calif.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Fred Upton, R-Mich.; and Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. The moderator will be a representative of The Politico, a political newspaper and Web site.

Host for the debate is the Entergy-Tulane Energy Institute, which was founded to improve public understanding of energy and the way it fits into virtually all parts of everyday life. Others involved in staging the forum — part of the “Congress Debates” series — are the House Democratic Caucus, the House Republican Conference, the Democratic Leadership Council and the Congressional Institute.

GSFP Op-Ed: Now It Is Radioactivity

After Katrina, we all came out and saw the destruction and shook out heads knowing we had survived and things would slowly get better. we were wrong, the dynamite Feds did not have a plan for such destruction, no ice, no food, no water, just a whiz-bang operation.

Slowly essentials got to the people and we knew things would be brighter. We were wrong, yet again. The Dwellings that the Feds gave us as temporary residences were full of toxic fumes. Many people got sick and some even got horribly ill.

Once again slowly things improved, for some. They went about repairing their homes even to the point of putting in very chic granite in their re-done baths and kitchens.  And things were  slowly getting better and very fashionable.

But wait, we were sadly wrong, yet one more time. Why?

Some granite countertops contain levels of uranium high enough to be dangerous to humans, said Rice professor W.J. Llope.

Using a spectrometer, Llope tested 25 varieties of granite bought from Houston-area dealers. In some cases, he said, he found countertops that could expose homeowners to 100 millirems of radiation in just a few months — the annual exposure limit set by the Department of Energy for visitors to nuclear labs.

As many as 1,600 varieties of granite from 64 countries are sold for household use in the United States. None of them is routinely tested for radioactivity.

Damn! What is left that can effect the people of Katrina? On the upside, look at the savings from not needing a reading light when in bed.

AL: Job Seekers Bilked

The offer went something like this — give me $110, and I’ll get you a job doing construction work at the future site of the ThyssenKrupp steel mill.

The man making the pitch said he worked for Halliburton, the giant oilfield services contractor based in Houston, said Daphne Police Lt. Jud Beedy and ThyssenKrupp spokesman Scott Posey. Going by the name Jamie Hewitt, the man claimed Halliburton was to displace MACTEC, the Atlanta-based engineering firm that manages the Calvert construction site for ThyssenKrupp, Posey said. People interested in jobs filled out paperwork, and then the man asked them to give him $110 in “union fees.”

An employee at the Hampton Inn said many people had been calling about the supposed recruiter, but said she knew nothing else about it. When asked if the man had rented a meeting room, she said she wasn’t allowed to give out that information. Beedy said Daphne Police were told the man was meeting with prospective employees in an individual hotel room.

ThyssenKrupp has many contractors on its site, and the construction workforce, recently at 800, is growing toward a peak of 7,000. To help fill those needs, the Mobile branch of the Associated General Contractors is setting up a plan to sign up workers for jobs. People who want to become one of the 2,700 permanent employees are being recruited by the company and by Alabama Industrial Development Training, a state agency. None of those groups charge fees of job applicants.

LA: River Reopens

A sheen of oil coated the Mississippi River for nearly 100 miles from the center of this city to the Gulf of Mexico on Friday following the worst oil spill here in nearly a decade. Around noon, after two days with no ship traffic, the Coast Guard opened the river to limited use.

The thick industrial fuel pouring from the barge could be smelled for miles in city neighborhoods up and down the river, even as hundreds of cleanup workers struggled to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some environmentalists worried about reports of fish and bird kills in sensitive marsh areas downstream, though officials said they had so far heard of only a handful of oil-covered birds. Booms to protect areas richest in wildlife, at the river’s mouth, were being deployed, officials said.

The Mississippi had been closed to all boat traffic, stranding about 200 vessels. The Coast Guard said 58 vessels were stopped in the river, the Associated Press reported Friday morning, and 97 were waiting at Southwest Pass — the narrow entrance from the Gulf of Mexico into the river. Another 37 were waiting on the Intercoastal Waterway, a shallow canal system that extends across the Gulf Coast. Forty-eight more were en route and expected to arrive over the weekend, and it could take days to clear the backlog.

AL & MS: You Can Help The Teamsters On Strike

This is letter sent to the CEO of Coke–please read and sign a copy and mail it to him.  Get involved!  Support the workers!

Appeal for Justice

The Coke Side of Life:
Work Hard, Retire Poor

Mr. J. Frank Harrison
Chairman and CEO
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated

Dear Mr. Harrison,

For decades, workers at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (Coke) have helped build a successful company that has created many good jobs for Alabama. In return, they’ve always earned decent pay and benefits—and retirement with dignity.

But on July 12, your company spokesperson told Teamsters representatives that the company would no longer contribute to these workers’ pensions. Under Coke’s scheme, a worker would face a $795-per-month reduction in retirement income when he or she is 62, after working for Coke for 42 years.

Meanwhile, executives at your company made millions in 2007. Top management will retire in comfort—but unless Coke gives back its employer pension contributions, employees who gave their lives to this company will struggle in their old age.

We believe that Alabama’s seniors deserve to retire with dignity. We the undersigned support Teamsters Local Union 991 and their fight to preserve retirement benefits. We urge you to get back to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair and just contract with the workers who have given so much to your company.

Sincerely:

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Just a reminder–help these workers in any way that you can.