Gulf Watch

January 26, 2007 - A federal official has publicly acknowledged that the problem of violent crime in New Orleans is largely the result of a troubled education system and entrenched poverty. Yet he intends to fight the problem not with more teachers or anti-poverty programs, but with more police.

January 25, 2007 - The residents of Survivors' Village -- a tent city erected in New Orleans last year to protest plans to tear down virtually undamaged public housing complexes despite a severe affordable housing crisis -- are calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General to investigate the proposed demolition.

January 24, 2007 - Though President Bush focused on domestic matters in last night's State of the Union address, he failed to make any mention of the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina. There was not a single word about the storm and its aftermath in the 5,600-word speech.

January 22, 2007 - In a bit of good news on Hurricane Katrina and Rita recovery efforts, FEMA on Friday announced that it was extending housing assistance to storm-displaced Gulf Coast residents for at least another six months.

January 22, 2007 - White House officials sought to federalize the Hurricane Katrina response effort in Louisiana because Gov. Kathleen Blanco was a Democratic woman, but it wanted to leave Gov. Haley Barbour at the helm in Mississippi because he was a Republican man.

January 19, 2007 - One of the biggest lingering challenges of Katrina is housing. Nearly 18 months after Katrina, tens of thousands of people displaced by the storm are still in limbo, waiting for housing to be rebuilt in New Orleans and coastal Mississippi.

January 17, 2007 - When the levee systems built and maintained by the federal government failed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the resulting deluge flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and surrounding parishes, leading to more than 1,000 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage.