Monday Morning Omnibus: “Gone to hell in a hand basket”

Oh the memories……

I regret to announce that my previously unannounced central Mississippi tour this week has been cancelled.  I’ll likely make it up to Jacktown next month as it stands now.

First up is problems in the engine room here at Slabbed.  I dispatched Mr Scott and even he was confounded. So on the theory people across this great nation are both paying close attention and Slabbed positive I sent off a bat signal:

What can I say but 20 minutes later:

Plus DJ sent a detailed email explaining that one of the dilithium crystal nodes in the warp core needed replacing.  With that fixed and before we engage the warp drive how about some lovely music that first appeared on these pages in our insurance litigation blogging days:

First up is a question.  How can one tell when New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas is lying about NOLA crime stats? Answer:

Trick question folks. It should have been when was the last time he told the truth about crime stats? It is at this point that I’ll take a victory lap:

Looks like Ronal Serpas is up to his old tricks…. ~ Doug Handshoe 5/17/2012

Crime experts question NOPD stats that paint New Orleans as a safe city with a murder problem ~ John Simerman and Gordon Russell 5/18/2013

Folks it appears Slabbed has originated a new rite of mid spring down here in Soggy Bottom.  😉 Seriously though Simerman and Russell put more meat on the bones using what auditors like me would term analytic procedures or in layman’s terms they compared New Orleans crime stats to national averages and those of cities of similar size and guess what? It strongly looks like Serpas is up to his own tricks.  Simerman and Russell get 2 thumbs up but alas Russell is now an employee of John Georges over at Lucky Coin News, which makes for a nice segue to the impact of his loss on the newsroom at the Times Picayune/TPStreet/NOLA.com.

No one in that newsroom can individually or collectively approach the depth and breadth of Russell’s sources. Yes, over at whatever Steve Newhouse is calling the media outlet formerly exclusively known as The Times Picayune the show will go on as it must, but the newsroom has a huge void that is undeniable.

Speaking of voids and information filling those of you that have not seen Jason Berry’s work on this exact topic of newly minted King Georges raiding Steve Newhouse’s talent pool are missing out. What I found interesting was the building of a straw men in comments by one particular commenter. Heuristics tells me those that build straw men in online commenting are either:

  1. An astroturfer.
  2. The human subject of the conversation.
  3. Someone very close to said human subject

Moving right along did I ever mention I would impersonate my old online handle on Yahoo finance? Those of you that have been around long enough to remember Sop81_1 may be amused to know I had Sob81_1 in my bag of tricks. I could be wrong but I think some that were previously unaware may be hipping up.

Next up is a Team Letten implosion update courtesy of Manuel Torres over at NOLA because the last US Attorney from Team Letten that was assigned to any of the River Birch related cases, Greg Kennedy, has been curbed by the Virginian.  We’ve covered the implosion of Team Letten in depth here on Slabbed and a certain NOLA.com commenter, JPChirper’s name was mentioned a time or two.  I noticed in comments that Chirper now has an avatar and the birdie looks pretty pissed off as, by Jove I think he’s got it:

Absolutely correct not only is it affordable justice it’s a different standard of justice for the wealthy and politically connected it’s a moveable bar to hurdle over for prosecutors where graft greases the rails. Wealthy individuals who commit wire fraud and tax fraud by creating shell companies to violate campaign contribution laws don’t have to fear prosecutors as others do the politicians they bribe control the justice department. You ask for the report on prosecutorial misconduct better yet you should demand those prosecutors stand trial only then by having to defend them selves would we get close to the truth.

I’ll add that there are very faint signs the Department of Justice has not written off the New Orleans metro area though the patient is on life support. These bat signals are, to my knowledge, known exclusively to Slabbed in the local media congroovancy mainly because, all my sources, unlike Gordon Russell’s for example, hail from the gutters of Jefferson Parish and janitorial staffs across the metro area. I will disclose however, in a journalistic perk, one of my sources was kind enough to give me a ride to work in his sewer vacuum truck a few years back. Next up from the I told you so files:

Two River Birch competitors dropping lawsuit against landfill, Fred Heebe, attorney says ~ Manuel Torres

As I was saying all eyes on Waste Management, which recently beefed up its legal team and is training for a fight against Team Heebe, the reigning “Beast of the East” and undisputed heavyweight champ that is possessive of “20 pounds of nuts“. If that is true he could make big money selling videos of himself burying his bones but the guy already has more money than God and Garland Robinette combined, so I doubt we’ll ever see that.

From the unshareable need file we have this:

Shaw chairman’s son charged with stealing $453,123 ~ Bill Lodge

I’m not sure why I was sent that story from November of last year but what the heck, I’ll play.

From the black hole files we have this:

Report: Canal Street VA Hospital over budget, behind schedule ~ Danny Monteverde

The New Orleans hospital’s initial cost, according to the GAO report, was $625 million, and work was supposed to be finished by December 2014. But the cost has swelled by 60 percent to $995 million, and now the work is expected to take until February 2016, 14 months later than anticipated.

When it is the US taxpayers getting the shaft JPAC style the numbers always are larger by magnitudes.

Speaking of flushing money down a terlit:

Millions of taxpayer dollars spent to move homes that are now decaying ~ Monica Hernandez

On these last two news stories I would invite my media brothers and sisters to follow the money for therein lies the answer.

Jeffrey over at Yella Blog has an interesting post and links to Bob Marshall’s project with WWNO on Louisiana’s rapidly disappearing wetlands problem.

Finally a few weeks back Mark Moseley over at The Lens checked in with good column on the utter disaster that was the Bushie Presidency. At the risk of angering economic ideologues I’ll add I think Paul Krugman has this one called right: Liquidity Trap.  Here at Slabbed we mix and match our economic theories under the theory that chicken and sausage gumbo (made with andouille from Jacobs) has far better and more complex flavors than simple baked chicken.

I had another link from AZ but I think I’ll make it a dedicated post.