Interesting article forwarded to the New Orleans blogging community from the BBC. No wonder we live in what’s likely the most medicated city in the US these days….

Hurricane Katrina was the most significant natural
disaster to strike the United States. Thousands of
people were exposed to destruction, human violence and
desperate circumstances. Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) was likely to be a significant medical
issue in the aftermath of Katrina.

In a paper to be presented at the 2007 Society for
Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting,
Professor Lisa D. Mills, MD, Director, Section of
Emergency Medicine Ultrasound, Louisiana State
University at New Orleans, will show that PTSD was
diagnosed in over 38% of the people who came to an
interim Emergency Department facility in New Orleans.
This is more than ten times higher than the 3.6%
prevalence in the general US population. Loss of a
loved one and simply staying in New Orleans during the
storm were associated with PTSD symptoms.

Commenting on this study, Dr. Peter DeBlieux, MD,
Director of Emergency Services at Louisiana State
University in New Orleans, states, “The incidence of
PTSD in our population post-Katrina reported in this
research study is noteworthy and worth following as
recovery efforts move forward. The prevalence cited in
this study is not alarming to those professionals
caring for patients who have been traumatized by the
storm and challenged by the recovery efforts.”

The magnitude and duration of even a single mental
health care diagnosis after this disaster demonstrates
the need for long term, coordinated mental health
response as part of disaster relief. Interim or
temporary mental health response is not adequate for
this population.

The presentation is entitled “Prevalence of
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Hurricane
Katrina” by Lisa D. Mills MD and Trevor J. Mills MD.
This paper will be presented at the 2007 SAEM Annual
Meeting, May 16-19, 2007, Chicago, IL on Friday, May
18th, in the Psychiatry poster session beginning at
9:00 AM in the River Exhibition Hall A & B of the
Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Abstracts of the
papers presented are published in Volume 14, Issue 5S,
the May 2007 supplement of the official journal of the
SAEM, Academic Emergency Medicine.
_______________________________________________

For the past 20 months, thousands of voters in this area and this state have found out just how difficult it is in this state to recall a elected official. The way the law is written now, 33.3% of registered voters must sign a petition to start a recall. Senator Walter Boasso’s bill- Senate Bill 22 would change that to 33.3% of registered voters who actually voted in the election to start a recall petition.

Let’s play a little numbers game. Well do it the easy way. Currently, say 100,000 people are registered voters in Orleans Parish. To start a recall petition, you would need 33,333 registered voters. While we are lucky to get 25% of registered voters to even participate, obviously no petition is going to get off the ground. If the new law were to pass, say we got 40,000 registered voters in a certain election. To begin a recall, petitioners would need a little over 12,000 signatures to get a recall started.
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Crop circles in Louisiana. The report says they are probably man made but they would say that wouldn’t they? lol

video here

I had to click on it when it popped up on the MSN homepage.

As I predicted about the time that Kathleen Blanco announced the she would no longer be running for Governor, Louisiana lost out on the steel mill plant that was suppose to save the state. Or so the Germans would have had us believe.

As the deadline got closer and closer, the state decided to up the ante even more. First the state was going to offer incentives worth 200 million to land the mill. Then increased to 300 million. That was Kathleen Blanco “last, final and best offer”. Until word spread this morning that the state had boosted the incentive package to a little over a “One Billllliooooonnnn” dollars.

In the end, it didn’t matter if we offered a gazillion trillion billion dollars to this company. In the end it wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about location either because Louisiana’s location for the plant was much better than Alabama’s location, which ended up winning. In the end, it was about stupid. As in a majority of Louisiana’s population didn’t seem to have the brains to work in a steel mill.
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Several months ago, when they first announced you could sign up on the city’s website for new trashcans, I went on there and filled out the little form, one for 2400 and one for 2402 and didn’t think much else of it. Then one day I came home from work and noticed shiny new Oscar the Grouch houses all over my neighborhood. Curiously, mine were not delivered. So I gave it another week or so for someone to “Oh shit” and fix the problem but it never happened.
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The well-intentioned and benevolent Kaiser Foundation is out with results of its study of Katrina victims, as reported here in this morning’s T-P. Far as I can tell, it just puts a statistical face on what we all know — that anyone who lives in Orleans Parish is still dealing with a combination of after-effects. And, as listed, upgrading of the levees remains the overall top priority.

I suppose it’s only natural that statisticians and other Specifics Experts will study things like this for years to come. I mean, this wasn’t your everyday or every year or even a once-a-lifetime event. And, of course, it’s good to see the sense of optimism that remains in so many. Anymore, just staying here is a show of optimism — getting a job, going to work, coming back to Home Sweet Home (even if it’s a FEMA trailer), establishing a new business, rebuilding the old one and, typically, making time for JazzFest or Wednesdays At The Square or whatever. You gotta mix some fun in there.
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…because everyone knows you don’t come early to a party. And the bitch is way freakin’ early.

I’m glad all that global warming nonsense has been put to bed. Otherwise someone might think that an increase in oceanic surface temperatures is causing North America’s hurricane season to kick off weeks ahead of schedule. But of course, that’s crazy talk.

I’m not kidding. This building (on Tulane near Claiborne) has caught fire 5 times in the past few months if I am counting correctly. WTF is going on that this keeps happening?

Well, this certainly brings up an issue — whether a corner of Jackson Square should be occupied by a local guy or by the 15,378,457th location of Starbucks. Seems you can’t sling a dead cat anymore without hitting one of their outlets — either a retail store or their prepackaged products or some third-party place that brags about carrying their crap.

Normally, I’m pretty much of a free-trader. But damn. We don’t need yet another Starbucks –particularly in this location. Their coffee is overroasted, their put-on image is Whole Foodsish in its bogusness and, really, I just don’t want them in Jackson Square. What’s next? A Red Lobster on Decatur Street?

I know La Madeleine (the former occupant of the space) is a chain. But at least what it did seemed appropriate in its Frenchness. I don’t care if Starbucks digs up the remains of Bienville hisowndamnself and props him up in the corner — there’s nothing even remotely local about them.

I say the lack of a Starbucks in the area forces turista-types to sample some of our own, more home-grown coffee places. I’m not overly enamored of the Cafe du Monde — but there are plenty other coffee houses nearby.

This should be a no-brainer for the regulators. But, as we’re all learning, sometimes our regulators have monumental trouble with things like this.

Not to be all Sally McSexcrimes with two lascivious posts in a row, but clearly, spring has done sprung in Washington Park:

thursday may 3rd at 5pm, i had my child in the swing and a man on the bench who had been staring at us for some time exposed himself and jerked off. i’d like to warn other parents since i think he is a park regular and i wouldn’t want another child to be assaulted. by the time i could call the police he had left.

he looked like mid 40′s, around 5’11″, thin, big thick glasses. he was wearing tan cordouroy [sic] pants, a big gray t-shirt, sneakers and a light colored baseball cap. he sat alone and stared at the children.

– From the seriously useful mailing list of the seriously out-of-date Marigny.org.

Which leads me to believe that either Brad Pitt was doing some epic pre-JazzFest partying, or someone got lost on his way to the Phoenix. Or both.