New Orleans in the News is a blog dedicated to moments when the city or state is the focus in the national spotlight. From issues concerning culture to politics to corruption, we try to cull stories from national news outlets, blogs and all kinds of sources that talk about this great city. If you have a link that we'd be interested in, send it to webteam@wwltv.com.
USA Today: Louisiana sheriff trains volunteers for 'Project Exodus' to combat terrorism
The sheriff in Bossier Parish is arming 200 local volunteers to battle terrorists, according to a report picked up by the USA Today.
Among the weapons: shotguns, riot shields, batons and a .50-caliber machine gun. The latter will be hitched onto what the sheriff's office is calling "the war wagon."
The original report comes from The Shreveport Times. Sheriff Larry Deen said he started the project, dubbed "Project Exodus" as a reference to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, so he could better protect all of the people in the parish. He said it will put the parish "ahead of the curve when it comes to fighting Islamic extremists."
The Talking Points Memo has an interview with a sheriff's office spokesman. The spokesman said they've received intelligence reports showing there have been people operating within the parish "that have been trained as terrorists or went overseas to be trained as terrorist."
"Terrorists can tend to strike anywhere and everywhere," said Ed Baswell, a spokesman for the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office. "There's not a state of paranoia, or anything like that."
The Talking Points Memo also has video of the training.
Time: The world according to Tom
Time Magazine sat down with actor Tom Hanks who was in town this week at the National World War II Museum for the premiere of his new HBO miniseries, "The Pacific." They talk about the program as well as some of his recent work with the museum.
The miniseries is set in the Pacific Theater during World War II. It's a follow-up to the actor's runaway hit "Band of Brothers," which like this new miniseries was also produced by Steven Spielberg, but it will feature a whole new set of characters along with the new setting.
It's not the first Hanks production to premiere at the museum in the past year. He produced the 4-D film "Beyond All Boundaries" that is now featured at the museum.
Hanks said in the interview that the setting for the miniseries is going to make a lot of veterans happy.
"But now the Korean War guys have started coming up to me, saying, 'Hey, what about us?' I get good-natured guff from so many veterans saying things like, 'When you going to do something on Vietnam?' And the fact that I hadn't worked on a Pacific War project — forget about it! Those guys would say to me things like, 'If you ain't telling the story of Saipan, you ain't tellin' the story of World War II.'"
(Oh, and that Karl Rove book that has the former White House council defending Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina? Hanks said he'll be buying it -- but only when it hits the discount bin. He mocked the book and said with a grin that it'll be "interesting" to hear the complete truth of the past eight years.)
Simon & Garfunkel planning US Tour
It looks like Simon & Garfunkel's reunion show at Jazz Fest won't be the only U.S. appearance in 2010, according to Rolling Stone Magazine. They've added a show in Fargo, and more dates may be on the way.
A Jazz Fest spokesman told the magazine that when the group's booking was announced in January, they were led to believe it would be their only show of the year in the country.
Economist: The New Orleans police: A bad shoot
The NOPD Danziger Bridge scandal has leaked onto the pages of The Economist. The article is a good summation for the uninitiated of what the case is all about, and what it means for the image of the city and those who protect it.
In another story, an editorial, published at Workers World, the argument is made that the Danziger case is an example of a "sordid history of state repression against the Black community." The editorial cites from a United Nations study calling New Orleans a "police state encampent."
"What happened on the Danziger Bridge in 2005 and other related acts of police terror was meant to send a clear message to the displaced Black Katrina survivors: Don’t bother to come back, because New Orleans is being rebuilt for the white elite and tourists."
