TO D AY’S PARADES LIVING CASE

DROPPED
Aquila, 7 p.m., Metairie
Jason, 7:30 p.m., Metairie Marching band First plaintiffs
Hermes, 6 p.m., Uptown
Orpheus, 7 p.m., Mandeville D’Etat, 6:30 p.m., Uptown carries on for withdraw suit
Selene, 6:30 p.m., Slidell Morpheus, 7:45 p.m., Uptown against Allstate
PARADE MAPS, A-14
RABOUIN HIGH
SCHOOL BAND slain director MONEY, D-10
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50 CENTS
t 171st year No. 26 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2007 ST. TAMMANY EDITION

Threat Demo
over A CHANGING CHURCH bills cut
debt state’s
being recovery
probed costs
Legislation waives,
Councilwoman gets forgives $1.8 billion
grand jury subpoena
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau
By Charlie Chapple
St. Tammany bureau
WASHINGTON — Stung by crit-
Federal authorities are inves- icism from within their own
tigating a Madisonville resi- ranks that they have abandoned
dent’s revelation last month that the Gulf Coast, House Demo-
Town Councilwoman Bonnie cratic leaders filed long-awaited
Fruge, in an effort to collect a legislation Thursday to relieve
hurricane-battered Louisiana of
business debt,
nearly $1.8 billion in recovery
threatened to costs. They also promised that
u s e h e r mo re he l p i s c om i ng ne xt
elected posi- month.
t io n to sh ut House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
down con- D-Calif., also established a
STAFF PHOTOS BY DAVID GRUNFELD
st ru c ti on of “working group” of Gulf Coast
the man’s new Workers with Concrete Busters of Louisiana demolish St. Genevieve Catholic Church near Slidell on Thursday. Demolition of
lawmakers to develop hurricane
Bonnie Fruge home. the church, which has served as a rallying point for the devasted Bayou Liberty area, should be complete today. recovery legislation and as-
Councilwoman U.S. Attor- signed staffers from key com-
guilty only ‘of ney Jim Let- uilt in 1958, St.
B
mittees to write and monitor
losing her cool,’ t e n o n bills.
lawyer says We d n e s d a y
would neither Genevieve Catholic The action came a day after
Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Na-
confirm nor deny an investiga- poleonville, criticized his party’s
tion. But Mayor Peter Gitz this Church near Slidell is being leadership for what he said was
week said he and town building a failure to fulfill campaign
inspector Steve Benton recently demolished this week, nearly promises to speed relief to the
were questioned by FBI agents Gulf Coast, which is still coping
and have been subpoenaed to 18 months after Hurricane with severe damage from the
2005 hurricane season.
testify before a federal grand
Katrina toppled its steeple “I think it was a wake-up
call,” Melancon said after an
See PROBE, A-6
hourlong impromptu meeting
and swamped the sanctuary, with Pelosi, other Democratic
leaders and committee heads
leaving behind 2 feet of Thursday afternoon.

State muck. In the months after

The facade of St. Genevieve Catholic Church near Slidell was made
with brick from St. Joe Brick near Slidell. Many parishioners stopped
by to pick up a brick or two for a keepsake as the church was being
Earlier Thursday, House Ma-
jority Leader Steny Hoyer en-
dorsed Melancon’s criticism.

education the hurricane, Mass was said torn down.

outdoors under a 300-year-
“You’re right,” Hoyer said to
Melancon at a morning news
conference.
“You know, we have not done
leader old, storm-battered live oak, where services were held more than 100
what we need to do,” the
Maryland Democrat said,
pounding the podium. “There is

dies years ago before the first church was built on the picturesque site along
Bayou Liberty. The congregation now meets in the renovated fellowship
a great deal of frustration on
the Gulf Coast about the recov-
ery effort, and that frustration

See BILLS, A-7

Cecil Picard directed hall. “The church is not the building, but the people,” the Rev. Roel ................................................................

I Feds won’t give state a break

accountability efforts Lungay said. “We are the church.” on state match for infrastructure
repair, A-7
By Darran Simon
Staff writer

Cecil Picard, Louisiana third-

longest-serving superintendent
of education, who was widely re-
spected for creating the state’s
Tornado gives victims a case of destruction déjà vu
accountability system and Carrollton resi- ranks of New Orleanians recov-
largely cred- dent Darren Many were rebuilding ering from a second weather-
related disaster, after the early-
ited with
shepherding
Brooks holds his
sleeping 2-year-
from losses in Katrina morning tornado landed a blow
the takeover to his new home. The tornado
old daughter, Ella, damaged or destroyed more
of New Or- By Coleman Warner
leans’ failing Thursday outside than 200 residences across the
Staff writer
public schools, their broken- New Orleans area.
d ie d Th ur s- windowed Zimpel Brooks is unbowed and un-
More than 16 months ago,
day. Street home, broken. Instead, he is among
Cecil Picard Hurricane Katrina blew down
many who are displaying resil-
Author of more Picard was which sustained Darren Brooks’ Magazine
ience, thanks to doses of good
than 50 pieces 68. $45,000 in dam- Street home and a bar he owns
humor and help from others.
of education Picard died near the Fair Grounds.
age in Tuesday’s “That’s life. Everybody has
legislation from compli- Two weeks ago, after a me-
tornado. The good things and bad things
cations of Lou ticulous restoration, he and his happen to them — mine was
Brookses, who wife moved into a home in the
Gehrig’s disease, also known as just concentrated in a year-and-
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, at
lost their Maga- Carrollton neighborhood, think- a-half period,” Brooks said with
Our Lady of Lourdes Regional zine Street home ing their post-storm life finally a laugh Thursday as he sur-
Medical Center in Lafayette. in Katrina, moved had stabilized. veyed wall cracks and freshly
His wife, Gaylen David Picard, into this house two Until Tuesday’s tornado. repaired windows in his home,
weeks ago. The 37-year-old former com-
See PICARD, A-4 STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL DeMOCKER mercial diver has joined the See STORM, A-5

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