CSM: New Orleans in the forefront of a green building revolution

After the levees breached during Hurricane Katrina, sending billions of gallons of water into the city and inundating it for days, many local leaders said the destruction gave the city an opportunity to build a “new” New Orleans. Now, four years later, that seems to be translating to a growing efficiency in the city's green technologies.

“As the city’s cleanup began, Petersen, the president and CEO of Global Green, an environmental nonprofit that promotes green building, saw a silver – or green – lining in Katrina’s catastrophic wake,” Husna Haq writes for the Christian Science Monitor.

The article comes weeks after Brad Pitt’s heralded Make it Right program made national news with a floating home in the Lower 9th Ward. Days after the unveiling, they also had an in-depth look at the green architecture in the city.

As this more recent Christian Science Monitor article points out, the green stretches beyond just homes, with plans to make transit and city services more green then ever.

“The city currently operates 49 biodiesel buses and several LED stoplights, with plans to purchase LED streetlamps soon,” Haq writes. “Green, energy-efficient schools are in the works, and the city is eager to do more.”

Global Green, a non-profit, has a plan to rebuild 10,000 green homes while building sustainable neighborhoods and schools.

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SLT: Sweet Creole fritters with Old World roots are back

The Salt Lake Tribune looks at the history of the Creole version of the beignet, the calas, in a recent article.

“Just about every geographic region boasts its own version of deep-fried dough,” writes Kathy Stephenson. “In Utah, people devour scones or fry bread with honey butter or jam. In parts of New Mexico and Texas, there is the sopapilla. And in the French Quarter of New Orleans, it is the beignet.

“There's a little-known Creole cousin, called calas (pronounced cal-LAH), that should be added to the list.”

The donut balls, which are made with rice, flour, sugar and eggs, made its way to New Orleans during the 1800s through the slave trade. It has hung around ever since.

The Tribune, of course, also includes a recipe for you to get started in the kitchen.

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ABC News: Landrieu ‘Skeptical’ of Reid Health Care Plan

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a critical vote in the Democrats’ push for the 60 votes needed to surmount a filibuster in passing health-care legislation, has been one of the party’s biggest opponents of the public option. That hasn’t changed, but she may be warming to a suggestion from across the aisle, as ABC News reports.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has endorsed a “trigger” plan that would start a public option in states where the free market is failing consumers. Landrieu signaled praise for the idea, as ABC notes.

“‘If we can achieve that through private market reform, that’s wonderful,’ Landrieu said, expressing her preference to ‘reform the private market first,’ before creating any sort of public health insurance option,” Z. Byron Wolf writes for ABC News.

Landrieu, as the article points out, seems hesitant about a plan that has been floated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that would allow states to opt out from the public option. She may vote against even bringing the bill to the Senate floor for a vote if that version of the public option, or a strengthened version that liberal Democrats voraciously support, is included in the final Senate bill.

Washington Independent had an item Wednesday saying that Landrieu may in fact be open to the “opt-out” plan, signaling that she may be happy with some of the tweaks made to a proposed public option.

“The public option,” Landrieu said, “has been shaped 100 percent better than when it started out. So, it’s already shaped to be a public option that is supported by premiums.”

For more of what Landrieu wants in health-care reform, which is largely relief for small businesses, check out this past blog post

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HuffPo: New Orleans: The Corps defends the future

I didn't get a chance to mention this last week, what with the site launch and our photographic assault on Voodoo Fest over the weekend, but Harry Shearer is developing a documentary on the causing of flooding in New Orleans, according to his blog on the Huffington Post.

In the post, he also discusses a Corps meeting he attended that had an elaborate, Pixar-like presentation. While Shearer applauds the effort, he asks: Just how much did it cost?

"The Corps reps wrote down the question, though they didn't know the answer," Shearer writes for the Huffington Post.

We'll keep an eye in this blog in the coming months about how the documentary is doing. Until then, check out our interview with him from last month, where he talks about how the media views -- sometimes, according to him, incorrectly -- the city and its struggles in its revival.

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