When the Federal Emergency Management Agency mailed out 83,000 debt notices this year to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms, one of the letters showed up in David Bellinger’s mailbox. Bellinger, who is blind, needed a friend to …
A federal judge on Aug. 24 dismissed a lawsuit by the state of Louisiana accusing two self-described whistleblowers of illegally copying and circulating documents containing confidential information about homeowners applying to a Hurricane Katrina grant program. U.S. District Judge James …
The final wave of holdouts has mostly packed up and left this Louisiana town as water from the swollen Atchafalaya River has inched toward their homes, with their frustration and hope painted on signs posted outside. “Nothing left worth stealing,” …
They call it the Vidalia Riverfront — a strip of land between the Mississippi River and the levee, with a park, walking trail, a camp ground, and $75 million worth of buildings that generate 300 jobs for this town of …
In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets, vehicles and gear — much of which had little to do …
A federal judge said Jan. 28 that he wasn’t trying to deprive states of their rights when he appointed Alabama’s newly elected attorney general to coordinate all states’ interests in the litigation spawned by the Gulf oil spill. “No such …
The former director of aviation at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in a Hurricane Katrina insurance fraud case. Sean Hunter and his wife, Shauna Crowden Hunter, were charged in federal …
A federal appeals court has rejected a $21 million settlement of Hurricane Katrina damage claims that some residents had complained was unfair, and that one group said would have entitled residents and businesses to as little as $40 each. U.S. …
A federal jury has awarded more than $650,000 to two Ohio tourists who were arrested in New Orleans, La., on public drunkenness charges two days before Hurricane Katrina and jailed for more than a month in the storm’s chaotic aftermath. …
A government contractor isn’t immune from claims that it performed shoddy work that resulted in the failure of a New Orleans levee system during Hurricane Katrina, a federal appeals court has ruled. This week’s ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit …
