As mother nature warms up for another wicked hurricane season, Mayor Ray "Don't Let 'em Use The Buses" Nagin says that New Orleans now has an evacuation plan that is better than the last one (They had a last one?). However, in another story carried by CNN, Nagin is saying that the city will allow residents to rebuild in the New Orleans East and Lower Ninth Ward even though they will be vulnerable to flooding from any future hurricanes. No word if he's going to park evacuation buses on the corners.

In a move that surprised no one, the New Orleans police cleared officers seen loading carts of merchandise at a Wal-Mart after the storm of any looting charges. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the somewhat dubiously named Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers "had received permission from their commanders to get clothing for fellow officers," and that Wal-Mart was informed later. They were, however, suspended for 10 days without pay for doing nothing while the other people in the store loaded up carts of merchandise that was not intended for police officers. One officer, Olivia Fontenot, who told a tv reporter who asked her what she was doing in the store that she was "Looking for looters," then turned her back, got an extra three days for being discourteous.

And to round out this update of Katrina related news, the Washington Post asks this question:

How many contractors does it take to haul a pile of tree branches? If it's government work, at least four: a contractor, his subcontractor, the subcontractor's subcontractor, and finally, the local man with a truck and chainsaw.

If the job is patching a leaking roof, the answer may be five contractors, or even six. At the bottom tier is a Spanish-speaking crew earning less than 10 cents for every square foot of blue tarp installed. At the top, the prime contractor bills the government 15 times as much for the same job.

The story also reported that this kind of inverted pyramid scheme occurs after every natural disaster, not just the ones with Republicans in office.

Ah, human nature.