News Roundup for 12-23-07 ...

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Protests against a City Council plan to tear down low-income New Orleans housing turned ugly Thursday, with police using pepper spray and stun guns to clear a crowd angry they weren't allowed into City Hall for the vote.

The City Council voted unanimously to greenlight the demolition of the city's four largest public housing developments, saying they are too damaged by Hurricane Katrina to allow residents back into them.

Aren’t the protesters and former residents romanticizing pre-Katrina life in these developments? BTW, HUD says that 400 apartments in New Orleans' public housing complexes remain available but unoccupied.

From our “Surprise!” department:

WASHINGTON, DC (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to shake its poor reputation, more than two years after its mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, a poll shows.

FEMA ranked at the bottom in a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll that measured the public's views of a dozen federal government agencies. FEMA came in last, and the Internal Revenue Service and Transportation Security Administration tied for next to last. The Postal Service was the clear favorite.

From our Corruption Watch department:

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (TP) -- The Justice Department on Thursday appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for access to documents seized in the unprecedented 2006 search of Rep. William Jefferson's (pictured)congressional office.

Meanwhile, Jefferson, who was expected to have taken the witness stand Thursday at a pre-trial hearing in his bribery case, did not testify. His attorney spent so much time cross-examining an FBI agent about the August 2005 search of his New Orleans home that the hearing was delayed.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III postponed proceedings until Jan. 16, when Jefferson, a New Orleans Democrat, is expected to answer questions for the first time under oath about the sprawling public corruption case against him. Jefferson's trial is scheduled to begin six weeks later.

Are you as anxious for the Jefferson trial to begin as I am?

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (TP) -- Gambling debts, false statements under oath, bank fraud and secret gifts from lawyers form the heart of an extraordinary impeachment referral that was lodged Thursday against U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous Jr.

jbv's Competitive Edge