It's no easy task, tackling corruption in New Orleans
September 17, 2009 — The agency given the herculean task of ferreting out corruption in New Orleans is being battered by a bureaucratic Katrina. The turmoil in the inspector general's office, set up three years ago as an independent watchdog over city government, began in January with the resignation of its first director for health reasons. The interim director was summarily given the boot earlier this month with the appointment of new director Edouard Quatrevaux, who within two weeks was given a month-long leave to attend to personal business. Meanwhile Leonard Odom, the sacked interim director, order the release of a report critical of the purchasing practices of his predecessor. Wednesday, Neely Moody, the deputy inspector general and independent police monitor, resigned less than a month after taking the job. Sounds like the Crescent City is returning to normal. -- US Rep. Heath Shuler said he didn't contact the Tennessee Valley Authority about approval for a land swap which would have allowed the construction of a boat dock at a housing development in which he was an investor. That appeared to contradict a report released Tuesday by TVA's inspector general. -- It's a big day in the Virginia governor's race. Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds meet in the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce debate, which has been pivotal in recent races. -- For the second straight months, Oklahoma state agencies will be forced to cut their budgets because of lagging revenue collections. There's been talk of a special session to address the budget crunch, but no decision has been made. -- It's a number that gives you a sense of just how many people Texas has locked up: More than 35,000 inmates in 14 Texas prisons have been placed on lockdown status in a crackdown on contraband smuggling. That's a big lockdown, but not as big as the one last year in which all 112 state prisons were locked down after a death row inmate used a contraband cell phone to threaten Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, (D-Houston) and an Austin American-Statesman reporter. The current lockdown came after Whitmire discovered a threatening letter posted on a website called -- get this -- blogginginmate.com. |
