The newspapers piled up while I was away in Nashville and Kentucky. So, this afternoon–Friday–I stacked them up on the kitchen table and went through them. Briefly, I hope, here is the news….

1) The population of New Orleans is up 14 percent. According to GCR and Associates–if you need a name for that organization, it’s Mike Flores, deacon in FBC of New Orleans–the present population of New Orleans proper is 255,137. That compares to 223,001 a year ago. And bear in mind, it’s just within the city limits, and has nothing to do with the 400,000 to 500,000 who live next door in Jefferson Parish.

2) The Times-Picayune of May 4 produced a map of the city subdivided into the various neighborhoods, showing how the population has grown in that area. Lakeview, for instance, counts 8,216 residents, which is up 36 percent from a year ago and about 35 percent of its pre-Katrina population. Gentilly counts 17,275 residents, up 42 percent from last year and about 37 percent of its pre-K population.

3) The city of Kenner has closed its tourist center, a longtime fixture at the intersection of Loyola and Interstate 10. Originally erected for the 1984 World’s Fair, it continued to serve the public until this week when Mayor Ed Muniz decided the $135,000 annual budget could be better spent. Marilyn Woodward, longtime member of FBC-Kenner, has done great work for the city there.

4) More letters to the editor, beating dead horses. “What are all those thousands of unused FEMA trailers doing sitting in the open fields up toward Hattiesburg?” someone wanted to know. (Answer: FEMA ordered them. Duh.) “I’m 86 years old, living in Dallas with my son, and can’t get any information out of the Road Home Program.” After letters and repeated e-mails. Answer: your guess is as good as mine.

5) Mississippi Attorney Dickie Scruggs, speaking May 4 to a meeting of trial lawyers in New Orleans, accuses insurance companies of possessing a license to steal. They alter engineering reports to falsely conclude that Katrina damage was caused by rising water, and thus the poor homeowner can draw money only from the National Flood Insurance Program–if he had a policy–and not from the insurance companies.

Scruggs has settled a thousand insurance lawsuits in Mississippi, the majority with State Farm, but says he has made little progress with Allstate cases. They want to fight it out, he says, because they hope the poor homeowner will tire of the fight and the expense and give up. Scruggs is the brother-in-law of Sen. Trent Lott and made millions fighting the tobacco companies in his state. State Farm dismisses his gripes as “emotional” remarks.

6) Nearly a year ago, we reported here that New Orleans’ Mayor C. Ray Nagin had announced a plan to convert 2,400 properties held for tax delinquency into commercial properties and liveable housing units. The May 6 Times-Picayune reports that so far only 81 of the properties have made it into the hands of developers, and some 500 of the properties have been reclaimed by the original home-owners, which means the end of whatever grand plan realtors might have had for them.

Once again, we notice that what our mayor does best is announce plans, not push them through to completion. To be fair, the culprit is frequently the murky title records. When several generations of a family live in a home which grandpa bought, and grandpa is long dead and the title is still in his name, the problem becomes tracing down all the heirs and getting their signatures. Who wants that job?

7) The Road Home Program and its hired-company, ICF, is announcing that based on the money they have so far handed out to affected homeowners, the fund will come up some $3 billion short. Some state legislators are drafting a bill to move some of the state’s surplus into that fund, while the governor is trying to get our Washington leaders to appropriate more money for this.

8) We reported here recently that the World Trade Center, that 30-story oddly shaped building at the foot of Canal Street, the building that houses our Volunteer Village on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors, has been purchased. The May 6 Times-Picayune straightens me out. A New York City firm has “won the right” to purchase that building and plans a major overhaul in the $160 million range. Preliminary plans call for a culinary school, retail stories, and hotels in the building.

What happens to our SBC Volunteer Village? Steve Gahagan of our Operation NOAH Rebuild told me recently that his office is continuing to schedule groups there for the foreseeable future. In fact, today (Friday), I ran into a group from Lincoln County, Kentucky, volunteering at the Global Maritime’s port luncheon under the downtown bridge, who said they are staying there and that they find it excellent.

9) This year’s JazzFest is history now. The combined attendance for the two weekends at the Fairgrounds (our Churchill-Downs-owned racetrack) was 375,000 and is said to have been the highest since 2003. Good sign.

10) New Orleans has a city ordinance which allows it to tear down or gut any property within 30 business days after citing it as “an imminent health threat,” and then place a lien on the property to pay for the cost of tearing it down or gutting it. Problem is, some are saying, that doesn’t give the homeowner much time to say “Hold on here!” The May 8 Times-Picayune says there is a separate city ordinance which gives homeowners 120 days to clean or gut or board up blighted properties, so the city is using the 30-day-ordinance to get the jobs done more efficiently. We’re all for efficiently, something we’ve seen little of in the last 21 months. The newspaper cites cases of homeowners getting their check from the Road Home program and preparing to rebuild, only to find a demolition notice on their front door.

11) Another good sign: local colleges say that based on pre-registration figures, this fall’s freshman class will be large. Tulane shows an increase of 56 percent of freshmen sending in the $300 deposit. Xavier shows an increase of 30 percent.

12) ICF, the company hired by the Louisiana Road Home Program, to receive applications from our 100,000 hurricane-affected homeowners and decide who gets what, the company that has been cursed and discussed as much as FEMA or the Corps of Engineers put together, that company is giving heft bonuses to its executives. Oh sure, they may not be able to get the checks to our residents, but they sure know how to write them to their own people. This Fairfax, Virginia, based company stands to earn $756 million in profit from administering this program, so obviously felt they could afford to be generous with their people. The company president received $1.7 million bonus, its CEO $1 million, and so on down the line. This is not going over well locally. Do the job, do it well, then pay your people generously. But not until. There have been many calls in the state legislature for the company’s contract to be terminated.

The editorial cartoon for Wednesday, May 9, shows four fat-cat executives with their ICF brief-cases. The first guy says, “People in Louisiana complain we aren’t getting checks out fast enough.” The other guys say, “Nonesense. I got mine.” “Same here.” “Ditto.”

13) Paul Vallas has been hired as Recovery District Superintendent for the New Orleans schools. He has been superintendent in both Chicago and Cleveland and apparently did super things there. He has his work cut out for him, and we wish him well.

14) Almost too funny. The Road Home Program had planned a lot of television commercials telling Louisianians what a great job they are doing. Trying to improve their public image, no doubt. But now that the word is out that they are facing a shortfall of funds of anywhere from $2 to $3 billion, they wisely decided blowing big bucks on TV ads would not be the wise thing to do, particularly if the point is to impress the public with their smarts.

15) Anyone have the patience for one more Road Home fiasco? Front page in Thursday’s paper: “Road Home throws curveball.” It has come to light that if an applicant (i.e., a resident with lots of hurricane damage seeking to get some of the Road Home money) takes a buyout and agrees to buy a new home in Louisiana, he/she will get nailed with a 40 percent penalty until they purchase the new home within 90 days. That little 90-day provision has just now come to the attention of senior state officials who are raising holy you-know-what. This provision will affect some 4,500 grant applicants.

Could we please run the tape backward and see who wrote all these goofy clauses in the application process and nail his hide to the wall?

16) A study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (anyone remember their Kaiser and Henry J. automobiles? And the Liberty ships of WWII?) into the attitudes of our local residents shows that most are still struggling with Katrina-caused issues but remain optimistic about the city’s future. Some 50 percent said their financial situation has worsened, 23 percent say they’ve had or seen problems with temper, alcohol abuse and marriage tension, and the top concern of 54 percent is repairing the levees, pumps, and floodwalls.

17) A poll by the University of New Orleans shows the greatest dissatisfaction of our citizens is with the city government. Over 33 percent said local political leaders’ lack of action was their greatest problem. 29 percent ranked crime at the top of their list. New Orleans’ Mayor C. Ray Nagin is unpopular with 63 percent of New Orleanians, and the proportion who support him is down to 33 percent.

Last week in Nashville, a church secretary told me her favorite part of this blog is my reporting on the latest foolishness of Mayor Nagin. “But you haven’t written about him lately,” she said. I said, “Reporting the antics of our mayor is like clubbing baby seals: it’s so easy you feel ashamed for taking advantage.”

18) Last one. (Hold the applause.) I didn’t find it in our local paper, but read in several newspapers last week about the steakhouse owner somewhere who refused to serve O. J. Simpson and his party. I thought then–and still think–what courage that took. It was such a little thing for the owner to do, and one which changes nothing at all, but we are impressed by the man’s courage. To Simpson’s credit, he took the news calmly and left without an incident. His lawyer, however, says it was sheer racism and he’s thinking of a lawsuit.

NOTE HERE: Son Marty and his family are heading to the beach tonight (Friday) and thus he will not be sending out the emailed version of this blog until his return in a week or so. However, we encourage readers to visit www.joemckeever.com and keep up with our reports there. Happy Mother’s Day, moms and grandmas.