Gulf Watch

April 30, 2007 - While hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents suffered in desperate conditions following Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration turned down assistance offered by other countries.

April 27, 2007 - The Bush administration yesterday announced that it would extend temporary housing assistance to survivors of Hurricane Katrina for another 18 months, until March 1, 2009. The program, which had already been extended, was set to expire on Aug. 31. About 80,000 Gulf Coast residents are still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers.

April 25, 2007 - The U.S. House of Representatives last month passed H.R. 1227, a measure that would reopen minimally damaged New Orleans public housing units closed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The bill has now moved to the Senate, but Louisiana's Sens.

April 25, 2007 - An audit conducted by a fair housing advocacy group has documented extensive racial discrimination in the New Orleans area rental housing market.

April 18, 2007 - Nineteen months after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, New Orleans "may have turned a corner," concludes the latest Katrina Index from the Greater New Orleans Data Center in collaboration with the Brookings Institution.

April 11, 2007 - The company's ads boast, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there."Æ But apparently the nation's largest insurer didn't want engineers who were actually neighbors of Hurricane Katrina victims to inspect storm-damaged properties, arguing that they were "too emotionally involved."

April 5, 2007 - Students from more than three dozen U.S. colleges and at least one high school will be holding events across the country next week to draw attention to the ongoing disaster in the Gulf -- and to demand federal legislation for a New Deal-style rebuilding program.