Katrina Contractors Bilk Taxpayers While removing enough debris to cover Britain, contractors working on hurricane recovery have overbilled the government in a $63 billion operation that only will get more expensive, according to a House report.
In New Orleans, Justice on Trial Every week or so here in post-Katrina New Orleans, the chief criminal court judge and his staff discover someone in jail who shouldn't be.
In New Orleans, Bush Speaks with Optimism but Sees Little of Ruin Bush made his first trip here in three months, declareing that New Orleans was "a heck of a place to bring your family" and that it had "some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun."
Made-in-Canada Prefab Houses Destined for Louisiana CBC News: Canadian Habitat for Humanity volunteers will assemble a "house in a box" kit for Louisiana hurricane victims during Ottawa's Winterlude festival. If all goes as planned, it will be the first of a series of prefab homes shipped from Canadian towns and cities to an 86-family development west of New Orleans.
Amid Katrina Ruins, Mortgage Payments Loom December brings a cruel cutoff of the end of an informal 90-day grace period in which many lenders let Hurricane Katrina victims put their mortgage payments on hold.
Time to Connect the Dots The New York Times: Along with ruined homes and upended trees, the recent hurricanes left behind a revived debate about global warming.
Blackwater Down: Mercenaries on US Soil "This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and possibly illegal."
Fire Crews to Hand Out Fliers for FEMA Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"